Solo homers by Eldridge, Koss lead SF Giants to win over Cardinals

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 pitched six shutout innings. Joel Kuhnel became the 11th different reliever to record a save this year, tying a franchise record.

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.

“I’m not trying to show anything; I’m just trying to go out and play baseball,” said Koss, who has become a regular due to numerous injuries. “I’m grateful that it’s for this team, but at the end of the day, I’m just trying to play the game and help the team win. Whatever comes of that, comes of that. I’m not trying to show that I can hit the ball hard or throw it far. Just trying to win ballgames.”

Eldridge’s homer, his 16th of the season, was easily one of the most impressive of his young career. On a 2-2 pitch from 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 lefties. Including tonight, Eldridge has an .893 OPS against left-handers this season over 127 plate appearances.

“We’ve caught some pretty tough [lefties], and looking ahead to our schedule, that’s not going to change,” said manager Tony Vitello. “But I think he’s kind of adjusted on how he approaches those at-bats compared to the others. Nothing that he’s verbalized to me, but you can just see on the video the willingness and the consistent effort to stay to the ball and stay close.”

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 pitched 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.

When asked what he’d like to accomplish the rest of the season, Roupp said he wanted to have nights similar to tonight.

“If you’ve watched my starts, the fourth inning has kind of gotten me over and over again,” Roupp said. “I was able to get through that one tonight, which was probably one of my better innings of the year. … Really, just getting through the innings and giving the guys a chance to win. But I’d love to finish the year healthy.”

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.

Up next

Blade Tidwell (0-2, 4.43 ERA) will take the mound on Wednesday afternoon as the Giants look to complete their first sweep of the season.