Eldridge's 10th-Inning Single Rescues SF in 5-4 Thriller

Bryce Eldridge went 2-for-4 with 3 RBI and delivered the gut-punch that flipped this game on its head, tying it in the 10th before San Francisco walked it off 5-4 over St. Louis. The Giants needed every last inch of a Shay Whitcomb infield single to survive.

San Francisco built a 3-0 lead that looked comfortable enough through five innings, with Rafael Devers doubling home the first run in the first, Eldridge adding a sacrifice fly in the third, and then doubling to center to score Devers in the fifth. Logan Webb did his part to protect it — 6.0 innings, just 3 hits, 1 earned run, and 8 strikeouts. That's a dominant outing by any measure, and it looked like Webb had handed his bullpen a manageable situation.

St. Louis had other ideas. Alec Burleson launched a 431-foot home run to right in the sixth to get the Cardinals on the board, then Nathan Church doubled home a run in the seventh to make it 3-2. The Cardinals tied it on a Fermín sacrifice fly in the ninth, and then — improbably — took a 4-3 lead in the 10th when Leo Bernal singled to right and scored Burleson. At that point, it looked like St. Louis had stolen this one on the road.

Then came the moment that decided everything. With the Giants trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the 10th, Eldridge singled to center, scoring Hill and moving Devers to second — and the win probability swung from 54% to 82% in San Francisco's favor on that single swing of the bat. That's the story of the night right there: a guy who had already driven in two runs finding a way to deliver a third when the season was pressing down hardest. One batter later, Whitcomb reached on an infield single to shortstop, Furman scored, and it was over — Giants 5, Cardinals 4. Jason Foley and Trent Harris combined for 3.0 scoreless innings out of the bullpen to seal it, which appears to be exactly the kind of late-game execution San Francisco needed after Webb handed the ball off. Michael McGreevy was solid for St. Louis — 6.2 innings, 2 earned runs — but the Cardinals' bullpen couldn't hold a one-run lead for a single out in the 10th, and that's what this loss will come down to.