Giants 10, Cardinals 3: Eldridge's Third-Inning Support, Then Hill's First Homer

Three in the first, four in the third, and Busch Stadium was already behind

September 15, 2026 - St. Louis - Bryce Eldridge hit his 17th homer in the first inning, Drew Gilbert already aboard, and the San Francisco Giants had a 2-0 lead before Andre Pallante could settle in. Turner Hill singled Jonah Cox home. 3-0. Alec Burleson answered with a homer of his own, his 23rd. 3-1. That was the Cardinals' competitive moment. San Francisco scored four more in the third and beat the St. Louis Cardinals 10-3.

Partly cloudy, 90 degrees. Wind 7 mph, out to left. First pitch 6:45 p.m. Attendance 26,666. The game lasted 2 hours, 56 minutes. The Giants had 12 hits. St. Louis had five. San Francisco is 63-89. St. Louis is 75-77. A 10-3 in September is how a club that has been out of the race for months still ruins someone else's night.

The third inning that ended Pallante's argument

Pallante lasted five: eight hits, eight runs, six earned, two walks, two strikeouts, one homer, 99 pitches. The third was the inning that turned a 3-1 into a game he could not win. Hill grounded a run home, Cox scoring, Jung Hoo Lee to third. 4-1. Grant McCray singled Lee home, Drew Cavanaugh to third. 5-1. Christian Koss singled both of them in. 7-1. Three hits, four runs, and Pallante was still in a game that had already left him.

Iván Herrera lifted a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third. Masyn Winn scored. 7-2. That was St. Louis climbing. It was also the last time the Cardinals were within five. Osleivis Basabe doubled Eldridge home in the fourth. 8-2. The Giants kept adding without needing another crooked number. Pallante's night was already the box score.

Eldridge doubled Brett Harris home in the eighth. 9-2. Nolan Gorman singled José Fermín home in the bottom half. 9-3. Hill then hit his first major league homer in the ninth, a fly ball to right-center. 10-3. First homer. Three RBI. A 2-for-4. The player who had been a line in a Giants prospect sentence finished the night as the last swing.

Tidwell through 6 2/3, and a Cardinals lineup that never stacked

Blade Tidwell threw 6 2/3 innings: three hits, two runs, one walk, four strikeouts, one homer, 95 pitches. Burleson's first-inning shot was the loud one. Herrera's fly was the other run. Everything else was Tidwell getting outs in a park that was 90 degrees and blowing out to left. He did not need a shutout. He needed the lead Eldridge handed him in the first, and he kept it.

Dylan Smith threw a scoreless eighth. Jason Foley allowed Gorman's RBI single in the eighth and still left with a six-run cushion. The Giants did not need a closer. They needed innings. Tidwell gave them almost seven. The bullpen finished the rest.

Koss went 3-for-5 with two RBI. Eldridge went 2-for-4 with a homer, a double, a walk, two runs, and three RBI. Hill went 2-for-4 with the first homer, a walk, and three RBI. McCray stole a base and drove in one. Cox scored twice and stole one. Lee doubled and scored. Harris doubled and scored. Cavanaugh walked and scored. Gilbert scored in the first and did not need a hit to do it. San Francisco left enough runners on to keep it from looking like a 14-1, and still scored in five different innings.

St. Louis got Burleson's homer, Herrera's fly, and Gorman's single. Winn scored. Fermín doubled and scored. The Cardinals had five hits and one error. They left the night with a 10-3 that started 3-1 and never got closer than five after the third.

A 10-3 that did not need a race to matter

The ESPN recap framed it as Eldridge driving in three. That is the clean version. The fuller one is a Giants lineup that scored three in the first, four in the third, and then kept finding one more. Hill's first homer was the kicker, not the plot. Tidwell was the plot. Pallante's five innings and six earned were the other half of it.

San Francisco is not playing for October. St. Louis is playing out a .500 season that keeps refusing to tilt. A Tuesday at Busch does not change either sentence. It does put 10 runs on a Giants team board that spent most of 2026 on the other side of nights like this.

The series stays in St. Louis. Pallante took the loss. Tidwell took the win. Eldridge's 17th was the first swing. Hill's first was the last one. The 10-3 sat between them.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put Tidwell at 16.66 pitching fantasy points. Eldridge had 11 hitting FP. Hill had 10. Koss had 5. San Francisco finished with 20 team FP, second on Tuesday behind only Detroit's 22. St. Louis finished at minus-5.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: ESPN recap and box score, MLB.com Gameday wrap, MLB.com schedule, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*