Photo: San Francisco Giants second baseman Jonah Cox is thrown out at home trying to score on an infield ground ball on Tuesday, September 22, 2026 at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif. (Jay Choi/SF Bay News Lab)
By Vince Cestone
SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants were so very close to a thrilling walk-off win against the Minnesota Twins, but they fell a run short in the ninth inning, losing 3-2 at Oracle Park on Tuesday night.
The game was tight, but the Giants could not get the big hit to tie the game late, making some costly baserunning errors in the eighth inning. Some of the Giants’ failures with runners on base could also be attributed to line drives that just found Twins’ gloves in the outfield.
San Francisco opened the scoring in the bottom of the second inning. With one out, third baseman Shay Whitcomb and right fielder Scott Bandura hit back-to-back singles, with Whitcomb advancing to third on Bandura’s hit. The catcher Drew Cavanaugh played some small ball, executing a suicide squeeze bunt, bringing in Whitcomb and giving the Giants a 1-0 lead.
The Giants held the lead until the sixth inning. With one out, Twins shortstop and ninth-place hitter Ryan Kreidler singled. Then, right fielder Luke Keaschall tripled in Kreidler, tying the game at 1. The next batter third baseman Brooks Lee singled in Keaschall, giving Minnesota a 2-1 lead.
The Twins added an important insurance run on a solo homer by center fielder Walker Jenkins, his fourth of the year, making the score 3-1 Twins. This would end up proving to be the winning run, as the Giants came up just a run short in the ninth inning.
The Giants missed a golden opportunity to tie the game or go ahead in the seventh inning. With two on and one out, pinch hitter Osleivis Basabe hit a hard liner to right field, but the lead runner from second Andrew Knizner read the ball as being a base hit and kept on going even though the right fielder Keaschall caught the ball. Knizner was doubled off second and the inning was over with the Giants getting no runs.
The Giants made a valiant effort to tie or win the game in the bottom of the ninth, but they ultimately fell short. After Brett Harris led off the inning with a walk, Knizner was then hit by a pitch. Shortstop Christian Koss then advanced the runners to second and third on a sacrifice bunt. The next batter Basabe walked. With the bases loaded and one out, second baseman Jonah Cox lined a screamer off the glove of the third baseman Lee, but Lee was able to recover the ball and step on the bag at third for the unassisted putout. Harris came in to score to make it 3-2 Twins. The next batter Victor Bericoto struck out to end the game, and the Giants lost 3-2.
On the pitching side, Anthony Molina was superb for the Giants. He went six innings, giving up two runs on four hits, while striking out six and walking one. For the Twins, starting pitcher Taj Bradley also went six innings but gave up just one run on three hits. He walked three and also struck out six batters. Bradley earned the win, and Molina took the loss.
Up next, the Giants will try to take the series against the Twins at 12:45 p.m. at Oracle Park on Wednesday. Connor Prielipp for the Twins (6-7, 4.94 ERA) will take on Cesar Perdomo for the Giants (0-1, 3.72 ERA).
And then–the Giants will end the season with a weekend series against the rival Los Angeles Dodgers.
