SAN FRANCISCO – As the Dodgers awaited the results of an MRI on Walker Buehler’s injured elbow, they could take solace in the fact that Clayton Kershaw was ready to return from his back injury.

That solace did not come with a victory attached.

In his first start since May 7, Kershaw allowed two runs in his four innings and the Dodgers went on to lose 3-2 to the San Francisco Giants Saturday.

The Dodgers have gone 4-8 over their past dozen games, managing just two runs in each of their first two games at Oracle Park.

“I mean other than losing, yeah, which is no fun no matter what building block you want,” Kershaw said when asked if Saturday represented a good first step in his return. “But overall, I feel good about it for the most part and will be ready to go for the next one.”

Kershaw threw 71 pitches in his four innings – meeting the pregame expectation laid out by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. But that total was inflated by a troublesome second inning and the need to work around an error by second baseman Gavin Lux in the fourth.

After retiring the first four batters he faced, Kershaw left a 1-and-2 slider over the heart of the plate and Thairo Estrada dutifully deposited it in the left-field seats. A four-pitch wak of Brandon Crawford and a single by Austin Wynns put two on with one out.

Kershaw froze Curt Casali with a slider for the second out but lefty Luis Gonzalez sent a two-strike single into center field to drive in the Giants’ second run.

“The one that stings is the two-strike single to González there to get that second run,” Kershaw said. “Estrada put a good at-bat together to hit that homer. But two strikes — I really wish I could have gotten out of there with one run. Wish I could have gone five (innings). But other than that, the first game back feels good.”

That was almost enough as the Dodgers were shut out through the first seven innings.

The Dodgers outhit the Giants 13-5 — including a three-hit game for Will Smith and two hits each from Lux and Cody Bellinger — but didn’t do much with those opportunities. They went 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position against a series of Giants relievers and stranded 14 on base including leaving the bases loaded twice.

“You’re not going to win many games when you do that,” Freddie Freeman said. “If you want to try and spin it, we had opportunities. But when you lose and you leave that many guys on, it’s a frustrating day as an offense.”

The most painful wasted chance for the Dodgers came in the top of the seventh inning.

A leadoff walk by Chris Taylor was followed by singles from Lux and Mookie Betts (following a 1-for-25 stretch for him) loaded the bases with no outs.

Lefty reliever Jarlin Garcia came in and got Freeman to swing and miss at a full-count fastball off the plate, down and in. Trea Turner bounced into an inning-ending double play on the next pitch.

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“I swung at a ball,” Freeman said, still disgusted after the game. “Can’t swing at a ball next time.”

An inning later, they finally broke through on Smith’s third single, an error and a ground-rule double by Bellinger. Camilo Doval came out of the bullpen and walked Taylor to load the bases with one out.

With the sellout crowd on its feet, Lux and Betts struck out, Betts the one guilty of chasing a full-count pitch off the plate this time.

“It wasn’t a great at-bat. It wasn’t a bad at-bat. I just chased,” Betts said. “He made a good pitch. Got himself out of it. He drives a Benz too.”

It didn’t stay a one-run game for long. Craig Kimbrel came in to pitch the eighth inning, his first game action since June 5. Eighteen pitches later, he had thrown just seven strikes and retired one batter while giving up a single, walking two and throwing two wild pitches, one to bring a run.

The run-scoring wild pitch came on a pitch in the dirt that might have hit Brandon Crawford’s foot (which would have made it a dead ball).

“From the bench, we can’t tell — I couldn’t tell — if it hit Crawford and I just thought it was a wild pitch,” Roberts said. “As Will goes to retrieve the baseball, and he gets back, Trea’s yelling into the dugout that it hit him.

“I go out there and try to protest or question. But … apparently the 20-second replay window had been closed. It potentially could have been challenged if we would have gotten ahead of it. But Will behind the plate couldn’t tell either. So it’s just one of those certain situations that we just didn’t react fast enough and we just didn’t know.”

Freeman got the run back when he led off the ninth with a home run and the Dodgers had the tying run in scoring position when Bellinger grounded out to end the game.

“The story of the game was we weren’t good at all with runners in scoring position,” Roberts said. “It wasn’t needing to get a base hit with two outs. It was situationally today, all day. We just didn’t finish innings and we kept those guys in the game and they ended up scratching one out. This is one that I expect our guys to look back and know that we gave it away.

“Situationally you just got to sort of be a professional hitter. You got those guys on the ropes and certainly we have that talent. But it takes a lot more than talent to still score runs. This is a game where we shouldn’t have lost this game.”