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SAN FRANCISCO – Down to his final strike, Bryce Eldridge could have made the Giants’ last out for a second straight night in a second straight loss to Washington.
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Instead, he belted a 405-foot, ninth-inning home run and the remaining fans roared their approval, before Matt Chapman popped up to end Tuesday’s 6-3 defeat.
“I was the last out yesterday, so I guess we get some payback for that one,” said Eldridge, whose ninth-inning strikeout Monday that sealed a 4-3 defeat to the Nationals.
His third home run of the season arguably wasn’t even his best at-bat Tuesday.
No, go back to the seventh inning, when he was in an 0-2 hole and grinded out a nine-pitch walk. It was his second walk of the game, a game in which he didn’t strike out.
Eldridge doubled in his first at-bat, finished 2-for-3, and now sports a .300 batting average (.385 OBP, .885 OPS).
“I’m seeing it well,” Eldridge said. Even if you look at Triple-A, the contact was just getting better. I was hitting like .330 there.”
Tuesday marked his 25th start since getting called up May 4 from Triple-A Sacramento.
“Honestly I feel the approach and the ability to hit before two strikes has helped me out a lot in eliminating strikeouts, getting more walks and putting the ball in play more, and that’s led to more hits,” Eldridge said.
An 0-2 count isn’t freaking him out, either. He’s taking time to breathe and, most important, he’s learning from those preceding strikes.
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“I wasn’t doing as good as a job at it in Triple-A. That’s always been something that’s always kind of been my ‘knock,’ if you will,” Eldridge added. “That’s something I’ve taken personal and wanted to work on. The more I walk, the less I strikeout, and I’ve been doing that more this year. To do that at this level has been huge for me, because I wasn’t very successful at it at the minor-league level.”
He’s struck out 23 times and walked 13 while primarily serving as the Giants’ designated hitter. He had 41 strikeouts and 20 walks at Triple-A Sacramento.
Monday night, he produced a go-ahead double in the eighth inning, before his game-ending strikeout in the ninth.
“What I’ve gotten better at is not letting that (0-2 count) just be the end, and taking the pitches I saw and learning from them, instead of kind of beating myself up that I’m down 0-2,” Eldridge said. “Learning from those two pitches was big in to be able to see more and draw a walk.”
Eldridge has reached base in 16 consecutive games, tied for the second-longest spree by a big-league rookie this season and the longest by a Giants rookie since Tyler Fitzgerald’s 17-game run in 2024. He’s batting .407 with eight doubles, two homers and six RBI since that streak began May 15.
And he’s batting behind baseball’s hottest hitter, Jung Hoo Lee, who’s batting .500 amid a 17-game hit streak.
After Lee grounded out in the ninth, Eldridge swung through a 97-mph fastball to drop the count to 1-2, before depositing a 98-mph fastball over center field, with a 105.3-mph exit velocity.
“It feels good but I like to win and it didn’t matter at the end,” Eldridge said. “It would have felt a lot better if we won the game.”
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This story was originally published June 10, 2026 at 4:51 AM.