{"id":2442697,"date":"2026-06-03T05:49:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T05:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2442697"},"modified":"2026-06-03T05:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T05:49:11","slug":"mccoy-reds-find-a-way-rally-past-royals-for-improbable-10-inning-victory-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/mccoy-reds-find-a-way-rally-past-royals-for-improbable-10-inning-victory-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"McCoy: Reds find a way, rally past Royals for improbable 10-inning victory | Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There was no possible way the Cincinnati Reds could win this game. No way possible.<\/p>\n

But there was a way, the most improbable of improbables.<\/p>\n

It ended dramatically, a walk-off single poked to right field by Blake Dunn, who lugged a 1 for 19 skid to the plate in the 10th-inning.<\/p>\n

His hit, followed by ghost runner Spencer Steer sliding home, gave the Reds a 4-3 win over the hopeless, hapless Kansas City Royals Tuesday night in Great American Ball Park.<\/p>\n

How the Reds got to that point was a study in perseverance.<\/p>\n

For seven innings they trailed, 3-1, and had one baserunner the entire seven innings.<\/p>\n

Spencer Steer homered with one out in the fifth inning against Kansas City starter Noah Cameron.<\/p>\n

That was it for the Reds through seven innings against Cameron. He retired every batter but Steer, 22 up, 21 down with eight strikeouts.<\/p>\n

Cameron had only 87 pitches but Royals manager Matt Quatraro decided that was enough \u2014 fortunately for the Reds.<\/p>\n

Matt Strahm arrived for the eighth inning and the first batter was Steer.<\/p>\n

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Cincinnati Reds pinch hitter Will Benson reacts while rounding the bases after hitting a game-tying solo home run during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals, Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

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\n Kareem Elgazzar – FR170448 AP<\/span>
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Home run. Again. Steer, a dead pull hitter, drilled this one the opposite way to right field. But the Reds still trailed, 3-2, and Steer had the only two hits and was the Reds\u2019 only baserunner.<\/p>\n

For the ninth inning, Quatraro brought in his massively struggling closer, Lucas Erceg. He had blown three saves in a row and four of his last five.<\/p>\n

Make it four straight and five of six.<\/p>\n

Francona sent up much-troubled Will Benson to pinch-hit to open the ninth, hoping he might draw a walk, get hit by a pitch or bloop in a single.<\/p>\n

He drove a dangling Erceg pitch into the right field seats. Tie game.<\/p>\n

Steer had done about as much damage as he could do for one game and struck out to end the ninth so he was the ghost runner in the 10th.<\/p>\n

Reds manager Tito Francona sent TJ Friedl up as a pinch-hitter to bunt Steer to third. He struck out. But with two strikes, Dunn delivered his walk-off.<\/p>\n

The Royals are 4-12 in one-run games, a partial explanation why they are 15 games under .500.<\/p>\n

Reds starter Andrew Abbott pitched five scoreless innings, but gave up three in the other inning, the fourth.<\/p>\n

The Royals batted around with one run scoring on a ground ball and two more on number nine hitter Michael Massey\u2019s two-out, two-run single.<\/p>\n

Abbott pitched six innings and gave up three runs, five hits, walked four and struck out five.<\/p>\n

And on this night, the Reds bullpen was impeccable \u2014 no runs, no hits, four walks and six strikeouts over four innings.<\/p>\n

TeJay Antone, Sam Moll, Zach Maxwell and Brock Burke contributed one inning each.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an unreal job by everyone,\u201d Steer told reporters after his eighth and ninth home runs extended his on-base streak to 21 games, longest in the majors.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbbott battled to give us a chance and the bullpen came in and shut \u2018em down,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir starter (Cameron) wasn\u2019t missing over the plate and had us off balance with his fastball and off-speed,\u201d he said \u201cBut we found a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

He found a way. Nobody else did until Cameron was lifted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t be happier for Will Benson,\u201d said Steer. \u201cHe was ready for that moment. He is ready every single day, the way he goes about his business and prepares for his at-bats. I don\u2019t think anybody deserves it more and that at-bat was magic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunn swung a magic bat in the 10th, a soft line drive over the second baseman\u2019s head to end it.<\/p>\n

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Cincinnati Reds’ Spencer Steer, right, avoids the tag by Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez, left, to score the game-winning run during the 10th inning of a baseball game, Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

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\n Kareem Elgazzar – FR170448 AP<\/span>
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\u201cGetting a win for the team is the most important thing,\u201d Dunn told reporters. \u201cThat was awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about the Steer and Benson homers, Dunn said, \u201cI\u2019m not here (talking to reporters) without those guys.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteer picked us up with those homers and Benson comes off the bench. . .pinch-hitting is one of the hardest things to do and the fact he was able to come in right there, that was huge,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

It was the team\u2019s first win without injured Elly De La Cruz after taking a 9-2 drubbing from the Royals Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of guys stepping up and a lot of guys who have been stepping up,\u201d said Steer. \u201cLosing Elly De La Cruz. . .he is a massive part of our team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is up to us to fill that void, win some ballgames without him, and hopefully when he comes back he\u2019ll hit the ground running.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what a win like this one means, Francona said, \u201cIt means we won, which is what we set out to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a pretty quiet night and if it wasn\u2019t for Steer, we had nothing,\u201d he added. \u201cTheir guy was just carving us up.\u201d<\/p>\n

But once Cameron left, it was the Reds doing the carving against a team that has lost seven of eight and 17 of 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill Benson had the huge hit so that we get to keep playing,\u201d said Francona. \u201cOnce you tie and go into extra innings, we\u2019re at home and the advantage is ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

And asked what he saw during Benson\u2019s at bat, Francona replied quickly, \u201cHe hit a home run. Their guy (Erceg) gives up a lot of walks, so the hope was that Benson could find a way to get on or get a hit.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, he hit a home run, but that\u2019s certainly not what we expected.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.daytondailynews.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was no possible way the Cincinnati Reds could win this game. No way possible. But there was a way, the most improbable of improbables. It ended dramatically, a walk-off single poked to right field by Blake Dunn, who lugged a 1 for 19 skid to the plate in the 10th-inning. His hit, followed by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2442698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2442697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/McCoy-Reds-find-a-way-rally-past-Royals-for-improbable.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2442697"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2442699,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442697\/revisions\/2442699"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2442698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2442697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2442697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2442697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}