ARLINGTON -- Take away rookie Sal Stewart's meteoric start to the 2026 season and it's been rough sledding early on for much of the Reds’ lineup. But two of their struggling hitters came up big on Friday afternoon against the Rangers when the club needed it most.
Tyler Stephenson delivered a two-run home run in the top of the ninth inning to give Cincinnati a 4-2 series-opening win in the Rangers' home opener at Globe Life Field.
It was a 3-3 game in the ninth against Texas reliever Chris Martin, when Spencer Steer -- who homered earlier in the game -- led off with a double to left-center field. Next was Stephenson, who worked a full count vs. Martin before going the opposite way to right-center field for his first homer.
Stephenson was 1-for-15 for the season before hitting a leadoff single in the seventh. Steer came into the day 1-for-17 and went 2-for-4 in the game.
It was a 2-2 game in the top of the sixth inning, when Elly De La Cruz lined a 1-0 fastball from Rangers starter MacKenzie Gore over the left-field fence for his third homer and a go-ahead run.
The homer was Cincinnati's second of the game against the lefty Gore. In the second inning, the Reds took a 2-0 lead when Eugenio Suárez hit a one-out single before Steer connected on an 0-1 pitch for a two-run homer to left field -- his first of 2026.
Reds starter Brady Singer pitched five-plus innings and allowed two runs on six hits and one walk to go with five strikeouts. A two-out rally in the bottom of the second inning against Singer included Danny Jansen's two-run double on a liner that tailed away from a diving Steer in left field. After a fourth-straight hit on a comebacker off the pitcher, Singer retired nine in a row and 10 of his next 11 batters.