{"id":660468,"date":"2026-04-03T07:21:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T07:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/660468\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T07:21:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T07:21:20","slug":"sf-giants-blade-tidwell-records-rare-three-inning-save","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/660468\/","title":{"rendered":"SF Giants’ Blade Tidwell records rare three-inning save"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Blade Tidwell was a bit confused.<\/p>\n

After striking out the New York Mets\u2019 Mark Vientos to secure the Giants\u2019 7-2 win<\/a> on Thursday evening, Tidwell and catcher Daniel Susac exchanged handshakes on the mound, as per the custom. Susac, who held onto the ball, congratulated Tidwell for his first career save.<\/p>\n

Tidwell, though, wasn\u2019t following.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was like, \u2018That\u2019s a save.\u2019 I said, \u2018We\u2019re up by five,\u2019\u201d Tidwell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018You went three innings.\u2019 He\u2019s like, \u2018What does that mean?\u2019\u201d recalled Susac, who totaled three hits and a walk in his first start.<\/p>\n

Tidwell didn\u2019t realize it in the moment, but he, indeed, recorded the first save of his career, a rare one of the three-inning variety<\/a>. Following the game, Tidwell and Susac<\/a> both hopped in laundry carts in the Giants\u2019 clubhouse and were showered with beer by their teammates to celebrate their respective milestones. As these things go, beer wasn\u2019t the only liquid involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like mustard, ketchup,\u201d said Tidwell, who allowed no runs over three innings with two strikeouts. \u201cI almost threw up. I hate those. I don\u2019t like sauce.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were both in there, so we went through that together,\u201d Susac said. \u201cWe were in different carts, but same condiments and everything all over us. \u2026 He was struggling. So was I. We probably took eight showers each.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Tidwell, who was recalled on Thursday afternoon after Jos\u00e9 Butt\u00f3 hit the injured list<\/a> with right arm fatigue, this marked his first save since his days at Loretto High School in Tennessee. Tidwell believed he recorded a save during his time with the Volunteers at Vitello, but he was never credited with a save. The right-hander\u2019s last known save, then, was as a high school junior.<\/p>\n

The moment would\u2019ve been special under any set of circumstances, but Tidwell\u2019s first save was especially memorable because of who was watching from the third-base dugout.<\/p>\n

Rookie manager Tony Vitello, of course, was Tidwell\u2019s head coach at Tennessee. There was also director of major league pitching Frank Anderson, who was Vitello\u2019s pitching coach in Knoxville.<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Frank had a really good moment after,\u201d Tidwell said. \u201cHe came up and gave me a hug. It was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opponent, too, added meaning.<\/p>\n

Tidwell was drafted in the second round of the 2022 MLB draft by the Mets and gradually climbed through New York\u2019s minor league system. Last May, Tidwell made his debut with the Mets, allowing six earned runs over 3 2\/3 innings. Ahead of the trade deadline, the Mets traded Tidwell, outfielder Drew Gilbert and reliever Jos\u00e9 Butt\u00f3 to the Giants in exchange for submariner Tyler Rogers.<\/p>\n

Rogers, the long-time Giant, pitched 27 1\/3 innings for the Mets before signing a three-year, $37 million deal with the Toronto Blue Jays this offseason. As for Tidwell? He has the stuff to become a staple in this pitching staff for years to come, regardless of role.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to be on that club to start the year \u2014 our club \u2014 as bad as you can possibly imagine,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cHe\u2019s a guy that you can tell when the emotions are there. He wears that intensity on his sleeve, and it didn\u2019t work out. I don\u2019t like the circumstances that caused it, but I do like the fact he stayed ready. He\u2019s been throwing well, and he was hungry to get out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only other reliever utilized on Thursday night besides Tidwell was right-hander Ryan Walker, who recorded the final two outs of the sixth inning after Robbie Ray allowed two runs over 5 1\/3 innings. The decision to use Walker in the sixth was interesting given that Walker is the closest thing this team has to a closer, but the deployment of Walker worked in the Giants\u2019 favor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of saw the sixth inning as a potential big moment in the game,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cEarlier in the meetings \u2026 we talked about the difference in looks from Robbie to Walk. So often, the other team \u2014 again it could be any level \u2014 gets excited when you take a really strong starting pitcher out and you\u2019re relieved that he\u2019s out of pitches. It\u2019s almost like it\u2019s a greater challenge for the next guy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like the different look and we like the fact that it was a save-type situation. Because to me, six through the ninth inning are all opportunities for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tidwell, though, was the only reliever recording a save on this evening. Even if he didn\u2019t initially know it in the moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Blade Tidwell was a bit confused. After striking out the New York Mets\u2019 Mark Vientos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,2178,162,4,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-660468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-giants","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-giants","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-giants","14":"tag-sanfrancisco","15":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-giants","18":"tag-sfgiants","19":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116339571934014503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}