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Eldridge's solo shot extends on-base streak as Giants edge Cardinals

Bryce Eldridge homered in the first and stretched his on-base streak to 17 games as San Francisco held off St. Louis 2-1.

Saratoga Newsroom

September 9, 20263 min read

Symbolic baseball in a gold trophy frame with laurel wreaths, no athletes
MLBFinal
St. Louis Cardinals1
San Francisco Giants2

September 8, 2026

SAN FRANCISCO - Bryce Eldridge put the Giants ahead before the first inning could settle, then spent the rest of the night making sure the lead survived.

His solo homer to left-center in the first - a 389-foot shot, per ESPN's play log - extended his on-base streak to 17 games, and Christian Koss followed with a solo blast in the second. The San Francisco Giants made those two runs stand up in a 2-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday night at Oracle Park.

The Associated Press story on ESPN led with both homers and Eldridge's streak. ESPN's box lists Eldridge 1-for-3 with the homer, an RBI, and a walk; Koss went 2-for-3 with his own long ball.

Roupp's quiet six

Landen Roupp (9-13) turned the early leads into a win: six innings, two hits, no runs, four walks, two strikeouts. He wriggled out of a bases-loaded jam in the third, and the AP noted San Francisco has now won three straight with him on the mound after a five-start losing streak earlier.

Reiver Sanmartin and Carson Seymour bridged to Joel Kuhnel, who recorded the final four outs for his seventh save in his Oracle Park debut after being claimed off waivers from Milwaukee. Nathan Church singled and Bryan Torres drove him in with two outs in the ninth before Iván Herrera grounded out to end it, the AP reported.

Pinch-runner Victor Scott II stole second to put the tying run in scoring position, but Kuhnel held.

Quinn Mathews (1-3) took the loss, allowing both homers over his outing. Alec Burleson reached four times with a single and three walks a night after his splash homer into McCovey Cove. Thomas Saggese extended a career-best hitting streak to nine games with a seventh-inning single.

A series the Giants needed

San Francisco improved to 61-85. St. Louis fell to 72-74. The clubs had not produced a winning Giants series against the Cardinals since a sweep in June 2023, according to the wire, and this set is their first meeting of 2026 before they reconvene next week in St. Louis.

Eldridge and Koss supplied the only runs San Francisco needed. Everything after that was pitching and late-inning nerve. Roupp's six scoreless frames bought the bullpen a clean canvas; Kuhnel's four-out save, including a ninth-inning RBI single against him, tested whether two early homers would be enough.

They were. Eldridge's walk later in the game kept the on-base streak intact even after the homer, a detail that matters for a young bat building a September résumé. The Cardinals put the tying run in scoring position with Scott's steal, and Herrera's groundout ended both the threat and the night.

A 2-1 win will not rewrite San Francisco's 61-85 season line, but a 17-game on-base streak and a series edge against St. Louis are the kinds of September notes that travel. Tidwell's finale start Wednesday will decide whether Eldridge's first-inning swing opens a series win or merely a good night.

Blade Tidwell (0-2, 4.43 ERA) starts the Wednesday finale opposite Andre Pallante (12-6, 3.51). Eldridge's on-base streak and first-inning homer gave San Francisco a script it could protect; Roupp and Kuhnel made sure the Cardinals never wrote a different ending.

Sources

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401816864

https://www.espn.com/mlb/recap/_/gameId/401816864

https://www.espn.com/mlb/game/_/gameId/401816864

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Saratoga Newsroom

Reporting from Saratoga and the surrounding area.

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