CINCINNATI -- Especially after Elly De La Cruz went on the injured list Monday, the Reds will need multiple hitters to step up to produce big hits. Against the Royals on Tuesday, there weren't many hits at all -- four for the game to be exact -- but they were all huge.
Those four hits from Cincinnati? They came via three home runs and a walk-off RBI single by Blake Dunn in the bottom of the 10th inning, proving to be just enough for a thrilling 4-3 victory over Kansas City at Great American Ball Park that evened the three-game series.
“Losing Elly the other day, he’s obviously a massive part of our team, and it’s on us to fill that void and find ways to win ballgames without him," said Spencer Steer, who slugged a pair of home runs and scored the winning run.
For much of the night, the only hitter doing anything was Steer.
Over his first 4 1/3 innings, Royals starter Noah Cameron was perfect as he retired each of his first 13 batters in a row while getting a 3-0 lead in the top of the fourth against Reds starter Andrew Abbott.
Steer broke up Cameron's momentum by hitting a 1-1 changeup into the seats in left-center field.
“I think that kind of helped everybody relax and opened up the rest of the game for us,” Dunn said.
It was the first homer Cameron had allowed in 37 2/3 innings.
“He was living on the corners and he did a good job throwing that fastball up and in and kind of got us cheating to that, and then throwing the offspeed away,” Steer said. "So really just getting him out over, waiting for a mistake and fighting off the borderline pitches and getting those mistakes and trying to put a good swing on it.”
After Cameron departed at 87 pitches and seven innings, Steer returned for the Reds' second hit -- a leadoff homer to right field against lefty reliever Matt Strahm to make it a one-run game.
“It was a pretty quiet night. If it wasn’t for Steer for a while there, we had nothing,” manager Terry Francona said.
Some important things happened between the Steer homers. First, Abbott overcame a 31-pitch fourth inning where he allowed all three of his runs. The lefty was able to preserve the bullpen a little longer by throwing scoreless fifth and sixth innings while getting to a season-high 105 pitches.
Then the bullpen -- which has taken its lumps lately -- did a super job of holding the Royals in check. Tejay Antone worked a scoreless seventh, followed by Sam Moll in the eighth.
In the top of the ninth, Zach Maxwell did his part by working around a one-out walk to keep the deficit at one run. Leading off the bottom of the ninth inning, pinch-hitter Will Benson pulled a 1-1 changeup from Kansas City closer Lucas Erceg into the right-field seats for a game-tying homer as the crowd of 25,824 got euphorically loud.
It was Benson's third homer of the season. Batting .188 with a .677 OPS, he has seen his playing time dwindle recently.
“I couldn’t be happier for Will Benson,” Steer said. “He was ready for that moment. He’s ready every single day, and the way he goes about his business and prepares like that, I don’t think anyone is more deserving than him. That at-bat right there was massive.”
Brock Burke continued the bullpen's good night with a scoreless top of the 10th inning despite a one-out walk. In the bottom of the 10th with one out, Dunn hit reliever John Schreiber's 2-1 sweeper for a soft single into right field.
Steer, the automatic runner, hustled home from second base as an off-target throw neared. He dodged a tag and crossed the plate standing up as the Reds' dugout emptied in celebration.
“I’m not in that spot without the way those guys played,” Dunn said. “It’s a total team effort.”
It was a total grind, but the Reds (31-29) pulled one out that they desperately needed.
“We play the game the right way, and got rewarded for it at the end,” Abbott said. “We just hung around, we hung around, we hung around and then when we needed to cash in, we cashed in. That’s what good teams do.”