Bryce Eldridge (8) hugs Luis Arraez (1) after he scored on a walk-off grand slam in the ninth inning as the San Francisco Giants played the Washington Nationals at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 in San Francisco. The Giants came back from a 9-1 deficit to win 11-10.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Bryce Eldridge (8) connects for a walk-off grand slam in the ninth inning as the San Francisco Giants played the Washington Nationals at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 in San Francisco. The Giants came back from a 9-1 deficit to win 11-10.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Bryce Eldridge (8) jumps up as he rounds the bases after hitting a walk-off grand slam in the ninth inning as the San Francisco Giants played the Washington Nationals at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 in San Francisco. The Giants came back from a 9-1 deficit to win 11-10.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Daniel Susac (6) scores on a wild pitch in the eighth inning as the San Francisco Giants played the Washington Nationals at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 in San Francisco. The Giants came back from a 9-1 deficit to win 11-10 on a walk-off grand slam by Bryce Eldridge (8).
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Jung Hoo Lee (51) celebrates with Eric Haase (18) after scoring on Bryce Eldridge’s (8) walk off homerun in the ninth inning as the San Francisco Giants played the Washington Nationals at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 in San Francisco. The Giants came back from a 9-1 deficit to win 11-10 on a walk-off grand slam by Bryce Eldridge (8).
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Luis Arraez (1) catches the late throw from Daniel Susac as Daylen Lile (4) steals second in the second inning as the San Francisco Giants played the Washington Nationals at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 in San Francisco.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Robbie Ray (38) adjusts his cap after giving up a two-run homerun in the third inning as the San Francisco Giants played the Washington Nationals at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 in San Francisco.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Jonah Cox (53) leaps for, but can’t catch, James Wood’s (29) two-run homerun in the third inning as the San Francisco Giants played the Washington Nationals at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 in San Francisco.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Victor Bericoto (78) makes a diving catch on a ball hit by Jorbit Vivas (84) in the third inning as the San Francisco Giants played the Washington Nationals at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Wednesday, June 10, 2026 in San Francisco.
Carlos Avila Gonzalez/S.F. Chronicle
Since arriving in San Francisco just two years ago, Bryce Eldridge made very clear his intentions.
Eldridge wants to be the face of this franchise, their next superstar hitter for years to come. The Giants, in a mad search for a position playing star to succeed Buster Posey, can only hope those dreams come true. Eldridge’s 6-foot-7 frame with outlier power is plenty fodder to fuel confidence, but baseball has a way of puncturing hope and bringing even the most skilled players back down to Earth.
On Wednesday, Eldridge showed just why his face of the franchise dreams could be reality. In the ninth inning, he smashed a walk-off grand slam that just cleared the right field seats, completing an eight-run comeback and Giants’ 11-10 win over the Washington Nationals to prevent a sweep.
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Eldridge hurled his bat in the air and rounded the bases in a daze; his mighty swing separated an embarrassing sweep at home from a glimmer of hope that the Giants are watching their next star’s first big moment. A moment he hopes he can deliver for years to come, and one he envisioned well before it arrived.
“I always want to be that guy in that situation,” he said. “It’s everything. This is the moment you dream of as a kid. I’ve always — I think about it every day, that I’m going to keep working hard because I want to be the face of this franchise. That’s something that motivates me every day. I want to be in that moment, I want to be that guy. Having my first big moment like that is very special. I don’t know what other word to describe it.”
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Eldridge was so ready for the moment, he started tracking the possibility of its arrival innings before and carried a bit of vengeance in his preparations.
He was the last out on Monday, at the plate with runners on the corners and down a run. A hit would have at least tied the game, or won it. Instead, Gus Varland struck him out swinging at a fastball up out of the zone.
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“The only thing I could think about the last two days was Monday,” Eldridge said. “And how I wasn’t pleased with how I ended the game. I was talking with a lot of people about that. I was like, ‘I want that opportunity back. I don’t know if I’m going to get the opportunity again for a while. Two days later, I got the opportunity. The whole entire time I was envisioning what I was going to do.”
Eldridge spent the eighth inning pacing the dugout and talking through it in the cage with hitting coach Hunter Mense. Eldridge had drawn a walk his previous at-bat, but wasn’t happy with his two at-bats prior against lefty starter Foster Griffin, that included a strikeout. Varland had the ninth inning again and had already surrendered a double to Luis Arraez and RBI double to Matt Chapman. Eldridge was in the hole and using the Trajekt hitting machine to simulate at-bats against Varland, soon he was in the hole.
Mense “Keeps coming in in there and saying, ‘Stay locked in, you’re going to have a big one. You’re going to have a big one,'” Eldridge said. “Hearing that from him helped.”
The Nationals pulled Varland for lefty Mitchell Parker, so the revenge element was off the table but Eldridge’s motivation was hot. Jung Hoo Lee singled to left to load the bases, bringing him up for his moment. He took two balls, then Parker tossed a slider inside that Eldridge turned on. The ball hung for a long time as the right fielder squared up near the brick wall, but it snuck over, registering at 330 feet.
By just 109 days, Eldridge is now the youngest player to hit a walk-off grand slam in baseball history. He barely tops Roberto Clemente, who hit an inside-the-park walk-off grand slam at age 21 and 342 days for the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field on July 25, 1956. He’s also the first rookie to hit a walk-off grand slam in Giants history.
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“I’m trying to whipe my smile off my face and stay professional,” Eldridge said when he heard the statistic. “That’s cool. That’s what I worked for my entire life, and something I’ve always strived to be, is to be great at this game.”
Walk-off grand slams fit the Eldridge profile of presumed excellence. He rose in the prospect ranks because when he hits the ball, he hits it harder than most in the minor leagues. But becoming a well-rounded hitter at the big league level, so far, is what prepared Eldridge for that moment.
Since his arrival on May 4, he’s not just hitting for power, but taking walks — even when he falls down 0-2 in the count — and hitting consistently. His batting average is up to .298 and has reached base safely in 17 straight games dating back to May 23. Over that stretch he’s hit eight doubles, three home runs with 10 RBIs.
“I’ve been super impressed with the way he carries himself and his confidence. It’s not like an arrogance, he just believes in himself,” Chapman said. “He’ makes me feel old. When I was his age, I probably wasn’t ready to take the kind of at-bats that he’s taking. Everybody takes their own path, but it’s really cool to see just his maturity and his ability to make adjustments and not let a bad at-bat effect him.”
Chapman didn’t have a bad game himself. He hit two home runs in a four-hit game, one for the Giants’ first run of the game and only one until the eighth inning, when he blasted another to kick off the Giants’ big claw back from an eight-run deficit.
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They were down 9-1 when the eighth inning began and didn’t get their first runner in scoring position until two outs in the sixth inning, when Lee singled to extend his MLB-leading 18-game hit streak. Rafael Devers followed Chapman with a home run, hitting his ninth to dead center field. That’s when the Giants dugout started to feel a comeback was brewing.
“Stranger things have happened, and it’s true in this game and in general,” manager Tony Vitello said.
Keeping the eighth inning going, Lee and Eldridge drew walks and Daniel Susac brought Lee home with a double to left field. Eldridge scored on Drew Gilbert’s groundout and Susac came home on a wild pitch.
The big slam was a sharp turn of events for fans soaking in the 70-degree afternoon sun, who were perturbed enough to boo loudly when the Nationals effortlessly tacked three runs onto their growing lead with four straight hits off reliever Carson Seymour.
The boos had to have started brewing an inning earlier, when each of the three Nationals to reach base successfully stole second – against Susac with both starter Robbie Ray and Seymour on the mound – and scored.
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Ray had some of his best fastball command he’s had all year, with both the four-seamer and new-ish sinker he’s been using. One fastball got punished: James Wood took a 3-1 four-seam fastball up in the zone deep to center-left field for a two-run home run.
The Nationals’ punishing offense seemed to do plenty damage. The Giants, though, showed fight and grit that hasn’t been easy to access.
“Judging it off some of the guys’ reaction in the dugout, they were frustrated,” Vitello said. “And they turned it into determination.”
Roster moves: The Giants made a roster move to bolster the bullpen before first pitch, reinstating left-handed reliever Reiver Sanmartin from the 60-day injured list and optioning Tristan Beck back to Triple-A Sacramento. Outfielder Will Brennan was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man.
Sanmartin had been injured since the World Baseball Classic in spring. Pitching for team Colombia, Sanmartin suffered a right hip flexor strain during their exhibition game in March. Sanmartin adds a lefty presence to a bullpen that hasn’t gotten much consistency (lots of walks) from their left-handed options Sam Hentges and Erik Miller. Sanmartin has a 6.52 ERA with 10 strikeouts, two walks and one home run over 10 rehab appearances with the ACL and Triple-A.