Solo homers by Eldridge, Koss lead SF Giants in win vs. Cardinals

Justice delos Santos, The Mercury News on Sep 9, 2026

Published in Baseball

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SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants have been out of the playoff picture for most of the summer, but it wasn’t until Monday that the gavel officially came down. Even in victory, San Francisco was officially eliminated from postseason contention. All that’s left to do is play out the string of a fifth straight non-winning season, a first in franchise history.

This season, an objective disaster, has long been lost. But embedded in nights such as Tuesday are slivers and morsels of hope and optimism. Bryce Eldridge homered and drew a walk a night after showing off his defensive strides. Christian Koss hit his third homer in his last four games. Landen Roupp tossed six shutout innings, and Joel Kuhnel recorded a four-out save.

The result — a 2-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals — brought the Giants’ record to 61-85, two wins away from avoiding the second 100-loss season in franchise history.

Eldridge’s homer, his 16th of the season, was easily one of the most impressive of his young career. Down 2-2 to left-hander Quinn Mathews, Eldridge went the other way on an elevated four-seam fastball and sent the offering into the left-field bleachers to win the left-on-left matchup.

The 21-year-old rookie has done more than just hold his own against southpaws. Including tonight, Eldridge has an .893 OPS against left-handers this season over 127 plate appearances.

For Roupp, this start was his first time completing at least six innings since July 22 against the Kansas City Royals.

The right-hander has tossed 150 2/3 innings this year, well beyond his previous career-high of 106 2/3, and the Giants appear to be exercising more caution as his season comes to a close. After throwing just 75 pitches over five innings last week against the Pirates, Roupp only threw 81 pitches on Tuesday against the Cardinals.

San Francisco’s bullpen, once again, teetered on the edge of disaster. The Cardinals loaded the bases as Carson Seymour walked two batters, then catcher Andrew Knizner dropped a third strike that allowed a runner to reach base. Kuhnel was thrown into the fire but recorded the final out of the eighth.

Kuhnel allowed the Cardinals’ first run of the game as Nathan Church singled, advanced to second on defensive indifference, then scored easily on a single by Bryan Torres. Despite allowing the tying run to reach base, Kuhnel recorded his first save as a Giant by getting Iván Herrera to ground out with the tying run in scoring position.