A sold-out Fenway Park crowd of 36,478 watched the San Francisco Giants control eight innings Saturday night, then watched Boston erase a 2-0 deficit in the ninth for a 3-2 walk-off win that stretched San Francisco's skid to 10 losses in 13 games.
The Associated Press described the finish: pinch-hitter Eli White singled home a run, Nick Sogard doubled off the Green Monster to tie it, and Wilyer Abreu chopped a hard grounder that first baseman Bryce Eldridge smothered. Eldridge's throw home for the force was ruled late - or, more precisely, catcher Andrew Knizner was ruled off the plate - by umpire James Hoye.
San Francisco's challenge failed. Boston celebrated twice. ESPN's play-by-play matched the AP account.
The Giants are 52-77; the Red Sox are 70-59.
Early Monster shots set a false calm
Willy Adames gave San Francisco the lead in the first, driving a Patrick Sandoval sinker over the Monster for his 21st home run, a 403-foot shot at 109.4 mph exit velocity, MLB.com reported.
Knizner doubled the margin in the third with a drive onto the Monster seats, his first hit of 2026 after a hitless start to the season and his first big-league homer since June 13, 2025, according to MLB.com and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Knizner finished 3-for-4. The Chronicle and NBC Sports Bay Area traced how he reached Fenway in Giants gear: he opted out of a Red Sox Triple-A arrangement at Worcester, then rejoined San Francisco after Daniel Susac fractured a kneecap. Eleven days after that call, he was in the middle of almost every pivotal moment Saturday.
Two rookies flash, one inning undoes it
Blade Tidwell, facing the park's noise in his sixth major-league start, threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings with three hits, two walks and seven strikeouts - a career high - on 93 pitches, MLB.com said. He struck out the side in the first. "I wanted to be the aggressor," Tidwell told MLB.com.
Vitello told the same outlet Tidwell was relentless early and then changed shapes as hitters saw him again.
Carson Seymour bridged to the eighth. Dylan Smith then inherited a mess: two on, nobody out. After Ceddanne Rafaela's single loaded the bases, Smith struck out Abreu and Willson Contreras and retired Adley Rutschman on a deep fly, NBC Sports Bay Area reported.