CINCINNATI -- The Reds were 26 outs into the game, and it wasn't looking too good for Cincinnati when Max Schrock hit a routine ground ball to first base.

Cleveland first baseman Josh Naylor, who had just turned back-to-back unassisted putouts on the previous two plays, had one more to make to end the game. But the final out would have to wait.

The ball went through Naylor's legs, opening the door for the tying run to score. Tyler Stephenson's pinch-hit RBI single gave Cincinnati a 3-2 walk-off victory in 10 innings over Cleveland on Saturday at Great American Ball Park.

"That was pure excitement, for sure," Schrock said. "That was everything you can ever dream of as a kid. Coming out there, winning an extra-inning game, and you get to celebrate with the rest of the guys on the team -- it was a lot of fun."

Schrock reached second base on the two-base error.

"Good things happen when you put the ball in play," he said. "I was just trying to put a solid swing on something, and get the next guy up. I guess I was fortunate enough to have that happen, I know. That was kind of my mindset."

Jesse Winker followed with a game-tying RBI single to left-center field that scored pinch-runner Nick Senzel. Winker hadn't even reached first base but was skipping for joy over his big hit, which came when he was in a 0-2 count against hard-throwing reliever Emmanuel Clase.

"It's one of those things, you just go into fight mode. I told myself, 'I'm going to hit it hard.' I just simplified it." Winker said of the two-strike count. “It's a 101-mph cutter. So I eliminated anything close to me. Early in that at-bat, I was looking for something closer to me to try to drive, and then after he dotted the first one and dotted the second one, I was like, 'Abort that idea. We're out on that.' Then I just went [on] to hit the ball as hard as I can, and try to find a hole. It got by the shortstop, and I was pumped up about that."

In the bottom of the 10th with Eugenio Suárez the automatic runner on second base and lefty Oliver Perez pitching, Tyler Naquin advanced him with a fly ball to center field that let him tag up. Following an intentional walk of Jonathan India, Stephenson emerged to pinch-hit. He had been preparing for Perez by taking swings from lefty-throwing coach Rolando Valles in the clubhouse hitting tunnel.

"Catch my breath and honestly, just try to slow the game down as much as possible," Stephenson said of his moment. "Even when I’m not playing, I still know there’s a chance I’m coming in, double-switch or pinch-hit. So just always staying locked in. And then just trusting myself."

Stephenson promptly ended the game with a drive to the right-field wall that went for a walk-off RBI single that gave the Reds the first two of the three-game series. The last Reds' walk-off winner was also by Stephenson with a homer vs. Pittsburgh on Sept. 14, 2020. 

"It’s not easy pinch-hitting and coming up in a situation like that. He hasn’t had a ton of playing time -- it was just a great at-bat," manager David Bell said. "He had the perfect approach to right-center, and he was just trying to hit the ball hard and stay on the ball against a really good pitcher that knows exactly what he’s doing out there. He couldn’t have approached it any better than he did." 

Before the Reds turned their fortunes around, they turned a triple play.

To open the top of the eighth inning, Reds reliever Amir Garrett gave up back-to-back singles that put runners on the corners with no outs. Naylor followed by lining a ball to first base, where Joey Votto snared the ball and tagged out Franmil Reyes. Thinking the ball hit the ground first, Eddie Rosario went home as Votto held the ball and waited. 

Votto tossed the ball to third base where Rosario was out on a triple play and the game's momentum shifted. 

“It takes all of us to win these types of games. We came through as a group, as a unit, and got the job done,” said Reds starting pitcher Sonny Gray, who pitched 4 1/3 innings and allowed two earned runs and six hits with two walks and six strikeouts in his season debut.