San Francisco Giants at St. Louis Cardinals: Final Score & Recap
Line Score
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SF | 3 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 12 | 0 |
| STL | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
The Story
The San Francisco Giants handed the St. Louis Cardinals a 10-3 defeat at Busch Stadium on September 15, 2026, in a game that was never as close as the DiamondIQ model's pre-game 62 percent home win probability suggested it might be. San Francisco struck early and often, plating three runs in the first inning and four more in the third to effectively put the game away by the middle frames. The Cardinals managed just five hits and compounded their troubles with two errors, while the Giants ran out 12 hits without committing one of their own.
The decisive swings in win probability came at the expense of Cardinals starter Andre Pallante, who was the losing pitcher against whom San Francisco's biggest offensive moments registered. Drew Cavanaugh's groundout in the top of the first, though an out, shifted win probability in San Francisco's favor by 8.6 percent in the context of that inning's run-scoring sequence. The real blow fell in the third, when Christian Koss delivered a single against Pallante that added 10.1 percent to the Giants' win probability, and Jung Hoo Lee followed with a double worth an additional 7.6 percent. On the St. Louis side, Nathan Church's pop out in the bottom of the second against Blade Tidwell cost the Cardinals 8.7 percent, and Jordan Walker's lineout to end the first removed another 7.9 percent from their chances, each squandered opportunity compressing an already difficult path back into the game.
Blade Tidwell was the standout performer of the night by a considerable margin, posting a DiamondIQ model WPA of plus-22.3 percent to lead all pitchers. Tidwell held the Cardinals in check across his innings and received virtually no resistance from a St. Louis lineup that could not sustain any threat against him. Among the position players, Christian Koss finished with a team-best plus-11.0 percent WPA and a RE24 of plus-2.2, reflecting the tangible run-environment value of his contributions. Drew Cavanaugh added plus-9.0 percent WPA, and Jung Hoo Lee contributed plus-7.5 percent WPA alongside a RE24 of plus-0.7. The DiamondIQ model leaned toward the Cardinals entering the game, but the Giants made that projection obsolete by the end of the third inning.