SF Giants lose in 10th inning for second straight day, waste Tidwell's encouraging start vs. Astros

Justice delos Santos, The Mercury News on Aug 11, 2026

Published in Baseball

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SAN FRANCISCO — Oslevis Basabe looked like he had a beat on the ball. Cam Smith had the speed to leg out an infield single, but if Basabe could at least keep the ball in the infield, he could prevent the tying run from scoring. So, Basabe laid out. He extended his left arm, and his glove made contact with the ball — and sent it straight into right field.

The Astros tied it in the ninth. Then, they secured the win in the 10th. Despite Blade Tidwell’s solid start and solo homers from Jung Hoo Lee and Drew Gilbert, the Giants endured their second extra-innings loss in the last two days, a 6-3 defeat.

Reliever Dylan Smith was one strike away from securing a one-run win in the top of the ninth, but the Astros’ Cam Smith snuck a single into right field past the dive of second baseman Osleivis Basabe that allowed pinch-runner Nick Allen to score the tying run. Right before Cam Smith’s game-tying single, Dylan Smith allowed Allen to advance to second on a wild pitch.

After scoring the equalizer in the ninth against Smith, the Astros scored three runs off Jason Foley to take the lead for good. Jeremy Peña gave Houston the lead with an RBI single, then Isaac Paredes drove in two more with a double. One of the runners that Paredes scored was former Giant LaMonte Wade Jr., who drew a pinch-hit walk.

Loss aside, Tidwell has impressed in his first two starts of the season since joining the rotation, allowing three earned runs over 10 2/3 innings with nine strikeouts to two walks. The right-hander averaged 95.6 mph with his four-seam fastball (up from 94.7 mph in his last start) and topped out at 98.3 mph. The 12 whiffs he generated with his sweeper are the most that a Giant has totaled with a breaking ball in a single start this year.

The 25-year-old got a major assist from his defense in the sixth when shortstop Willy Adames chased down Jeremy Peña’s grounder up the middle, spun and fired. First baseman Rafael Devers completed the play by stretching and making a tough pick, falling on his back after recording the out.

Along with the defense, reliever JT Brubaker stranded a pair of inherited runners from Tidwell in the top of the sixth.

The Astros scored the game’s first run on a sacrifice fly by Jose Altuve in the top of the first, but Drew Gilbert provided the equalizer in the bottom of the fourth with a sacrifice fly of his own.

Lee gave the Giants a 2-1 lead in the fifth by hitting his career-high ninth home run of the season, a solo shot that nearly landed in McCovey Cove. The Astros’ Cam Smith tied the game in the seventh with his own solo home run, but the Giants took a 3-2 lead right back on a solo homer from Gilbert, his fifth home run of the season.

That score held until two outs in the ninth, when Smith delivered another big hit that ultimately sunk the Giants.

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