SF Erupts for Six in the Eighth, Stuns STL 7-6
San Francisco trailed 6-1 heading into the eighth inning and scored six unanswered runs to walk off with a 7-6 win over St. Louis on September 9. The story of the night was a stunning eighth-inning collapse that turned a Cardinals blowout into a Giants celebration.
St. Louis looked like it had this one locked up early. Bryce Eldridge gave San Francisco a quick 1-0 lead in the first with an RBI single to left, but the Cardinals answered immediately — Nolan Gorman singled to left to score Báez and tie it in the second. Then Leo Bernal took over. His three-run homer to right in the third, traveling 378 feet, plated Herrera and Burleson and pushed St. Louis to a 4-1 lead. Bernal kept producing even on an out — a fifth-inning groundout that turned into a double play still scored Torres, making it 5-1. José Fermín added a sacrifice fly in the sixth, and suddenly the Cardinals were sitting on a 6-1 advantage that looked insurmountable.
Andre Pallante did his part on the mound, going 5.0 innings and allowing just 1 earned run on 5 hits with 4 strikeouts and zero walks. San Francisco cycled through arms — Matt Wilkinson threw 2.0 scoreless innings, Philip Abner followed with 2.0 more without allowing an earned run. Justin Bruihl was sharp in relief for St. Louis, striking out three in a perfect inning. None of it mattered once the eighth arrived.
What happened in the eighth inning looks, in hindsight, like a complete unraveling. Eldridge singled to center to score B. Harris and Cavanaugh, cutting the deficit to 6-3. Then Cox reached on an infield single to shortstop, scoring Hill to make it 6-4. The moment that broke the game open: Jung Hoo Lee doubled to right, scoring Cox and Eldridge to tie it at 6-6. San Francisco's win probability swung from 16% to 59% on that single swing — a 44-point shift that flipped the entire complexion of the night. Whitcomb then doubled to right to score Lee, and just like that, the Giants had a 7-6 lead they would not relinquish. Eldridge finished 2-for-4 with 3 RBI, Lee went 2-for-4 with 2 RBI, and Cox chipped in the go-ahead run. Bernal's 3-RBI night for St. Louis was electric — it just wasn't enough once the bullpen let a five-run lead evaporate in a single inning.