Giants drop two of three to Cardinals, prepare for crucial 6-game homestand

Justice delos Santos, The Mercury News on Sep 7, 2025

Published in Baseball

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ST. LOUIS — In a vacuum, the San Francisco Giants had an acceptable road trip. They dropped the rubber match to the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday at Busch Stadium, but with a sweep of the Colorado Rockies, they’ll fly home with four wins to two losses.

The Giants do not exist in a vacuum. With 19 games remaining and a record of 72-71, acceptable is not enough. They had an opportunity in St. Louis to inch closer to that final NL wild-card spot, but Saturday’s walk-off loss combined with Sunday’s 4-3 loss leaves them four games behind the New York Mets.

Now, they enter their most important homestand of the season: Three games against the surging Arizona Diamondbacks, who are making their own late push for the final wild-card spot, and three games against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are clinging to the division lead.

San Francisco has revived its playoff hopes over the last two-and-a-half weeks, winning 11 of its last 15 games even after dropping two of three to the Cardinals. A good homestand will keep the Giants in the hunt, especially if the Mets continue to stumble. A bad homestand could see their playoff odds fall closer to zero.

Kai-Wei Teng and Sonny Gray traded zeros for the first four innings, but St. Louis put up a four-spot in the bottom of the fifth when Teng suddenly lost his command.

The right-hander began the frame by walking the Cardinals’ seven, eight and nine hitters — Jordan Walker, Nathan Church, José Fermín — and setting the table for the top of the order. Lars Nootbaar’s RBI single broke the scoreless tie, knocking Teng out of the game in the process.

Right-handed reliever José Buttó couldn’t prevent the Cardinals from padding their lead, allowing all three inherited runners to score. By the end of the frame, St. Louis led 4-0 and San Francisco had yet to record a hit. Teng allowed four runs over four-plus innings with eight strikeouts and five walks.

In the top of the sixth, the Giants finally had a response. Gray began the inning by walking Drew Gilbert and Knizner, gifting San Francisco a rally. Following Heliot Ramos’ strikeout, Rafael Devers recorded the Giants’ first hit with a single that drove in Gilbert and cut the deficit to 4-1.

Willy Adames walked to load the bases, and Dominic Smith drove in the second run of the inning with a bases-loaded single of his own, knocking Gray out of the game in the process.

The Giants got within one run when Matt Chapman drove in Devers with a single against reliever Matt Svanson, but Svanson maintained the Cardinals’ 4-3 lead by retiring Jung Hoo Lee and Casey Schmitt.

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