ATLANTA — After a 35-minute rain delay in the first inning on Friday at Truist Park, Giants right-hander Kevin Gausman looked out of sorts.

He was unable to throw his fastball at the top of the strike zone, and he hadn’t yet settled into a rhythm with a splitter that’s been difficult to command over the last month.

When Gausman opened the third inning by falling on his back after nearly doing the splits in an effort to cover first base, everyone in the Giants’ dugout held their breath. Gausman’s spill sent manager Gabe Kapler and trainer Dave Groeschner out to the mound to check on him, but the veteran starter ultimately remained in the game and wound up firing six innings of two-run ball in a 6-4 Giants loss.

“I was in a weird position and my foot just kind of gave out on me with all of my weight on it,” Gausman said. “It didn’t feel good.”

Gausman isn’t the only Giants player to deal with an injury scare this week. In fact, he’s one of several of the team’s most important players who are battling through pain as the club pushes toward the postseason.

While Gausman returned to the mound after the rain delay, Giants third baseman Kris Bryant didn’t. He felt tightness on his right side during a first-inning check swing and the club plans to reevaluate him on Saturday.

Bryant’s early exit was one of a handful for the Giants this week, as catcher Buster Posey left Tuesday’s game in New York with left knee soreness a few innings before Brandon Crawford needed to leave the game with lower back tightness. On Thursday, Curt Casali departed in the eighth inning against the Mets after experiencing dizziness, but after being checked for a concussion and exhibiting no symptoms on Friday, he was cleared to play again.

Posey and Crawford were able to avoid trips to the injured list and manager Gabe Kapler indicated Friday night there’s optimism Bryant will remain active as well, but it’s clear that all the aches and pains the Giants are dealing with have a chance to slow their momentum in what’s been a fabulous race with the Dodgers for a National League West title.

“You can play as smart as you possibly can, but some of it is inevitable,” Posey said of the injuries. “I do think we’ve shown as a group that we’ve been able to bounce back from guys that have had injuries this year and that’s obviously been one of our strengths.”

The Giants were already compromised heading into Friday’s matchup against Braves left-hander Max Fried as two of their top right-handed bats, Evan Longoria and Donovan Solano, were unavailable. Longoria returned from a two-month stint on the injured list with a left shoulder sprain and was active for only a week of games before landing back on the IL with a right hand contusion.

Solano was placed on the COVID-19 injured list Thursday after becoming the first Giants player to contract the coronavirus during a season since the beginning of the pandemic. Solano, who is fully vaccinated, was dealing with minor cold-like symptoms, but his positive test result will require him to miss at least seven days.

With Bryant, Longoria and Solano unavailable, the Giants were also without first baseman Brandon Belt, who was placed on the bereavement list Thursday to attend funeral services for his grandmother, Margaret Peterson, in Texas.

The Giants normally load their lineups up with righties against left-handed starters, but when Bryant came out, LaMonte Wade Jr., who is 2-for-26 against lefties this year, entered. Wade joined a lineup that also included Tommy La Stella, who delivered a RBI double against Fried despite normally sitting against lefties so Solano or Wilmer Flores can man second base.

Injuries have been a recurring issue for the Giants throughout the 2021 season as starters Anthony DeSclafani (right ankle inflammation) and Johnny Cueto (right flexor strain) have also been on the IL in August, but their ability to overcome personnel losses and rely on their depth has been an obvious strength.

Few teams have demonstrated the type of resilience the Giants have shown this season, and just a week after Kapler and many veteran players discussed how excited the team was to have most of its key pieces back, they’ll need to show that resilience again.

The Dodgers certainly aren’t going away, and regardless of who’s fresh and who needs to rest down the stretch, the Giants have set expectations so high with their play this year that any kind of a letdown in the team’s performance will be viewed as a disappointment by fans.