Jung Hoo Lee tied the game with a two-run double, Shay Whitcomb plated the go-ahead run with a double on the next pitch and the San Francisco Giants erupted for six runs in the eighth inning to complete a three-game home sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals with a 7-6 stunner Wednesday afternoon.
After Leo Bernal had launched a three-run home run and right-hander Andre Pallante had worked effectively into the sixth inning, the Cardinals (72-75) led 6-1 and appeared headed for a fifth win on a nine-game Western swing.
But a single, a hit batsman and a walk loaded the bases with two outs in the eighth. Bryce Eldridge delivered a two-run single and Jonah Cox had an RBI hit to make it a 6-4 game.
Lee followed with his liner off the right field wall, scoring Eldridge and Cox, before Whitcomb belted George Soriano’s next offering off the center field fence, sending Lee home with the eventual game-winner.
Protecting a one-run lead, right-hander Trent Harris allowed a leadoff single to Jose Fermin in the ninth inning before getting Jordan Walker to ground into a double play and Ivan Herrera to ground out to third base.
Harris was rewarded with his first career save and fellow rookie Matt Wilkinson (1-3), who pitched scoreless seventh and eighth innings, with his first career win. Soriano (6-5) took the loss.
After Eldridge had given the Giants (62-85) a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first with an RBI single, the Cardinals got even on a Nolan Gorman run-scoring single in the second.
St. Louis took the lead on Bernal’s second home run of the season, a three-run shot in the third.
The Cardinals added a run in the fifth inning when Bernal grounded into a bases-loaded, no-out double play for a 5-1 advantage. Fermin’s sacrifice fly in the sixth expanded the lead to 6-1.
Giants starter Blade Tidwell was pulled amid the fifth-inning jam, charged with five runs (four earned) on five hits in four-plus innings. The right-hander walked two and struck out two.
Pallante lasted one batter into the sixth, having limited the Giants to one run and five hits in five-plus innings. He struck out four.
Eldridge totaled three RBIs and was one of three Giants who collected two hits, joining Lee and Christian Koss, helping San Francisco record its first three-game home sweep of the season.
Gorman had two hits for the Cardinals, who began the day six games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks in their battle for the third and final wild-card playoff spot in the National League.
