I am a first time DM and have just finished running the Dripping Caves.

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>  My party went in, guns blazing, and were almost wiped by the ogres. Moving forward, the encounters are well over the deadly encounter range from the DM's guidebook.
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I want to lower the difficulty but I'm worried that I will overcorrect and create a new problem of fights that are much too easy.

How can I judge the correct difficulty for the fights they are going to have without making them too easy or too hard?