Spencer Steer Praises Will Benson After Clutch Homer Sparks Reds' Win

Spencer Steer hit two solo home runs and scored the winning run on Tuesday night, but after the Cincinnati Reds beat the Kansas City Royals 4-3 in 10 innings at Great American Ball Park, it was Will Benson he wanted to talk about.

Benson came off the bench in the ninth and tied the game with a pinch-hit homer off closer Lucas Erceg, setting up Blake Dunn's walk-off RBI single an inning later.

"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."

Benson has had a rough 2026.

He entered Tuesday hitting under .180 on the year and has been scratching for at-bats in a packed outfield, but when his name got called in the ninth he looked like a guy who had been waiting for exactly that moment.

He got ahold of an Erceg pitch and put it over the right field wall to tie things at 3-3.

The batting average does not tell the whole story with Benson.

He hit 12 home runs with a .226 average in 2025, so even in down stretches he can still run into one and change a game, and with the Reds down to their last out in the ninth, that is exactly what happened.

Steer did most of the heavy lifting against a Royals starter who was nearly unhittable all night.

Noah Cameron retired 20 of 21 batters while striking out eight and walking nobody, and Steer's first homer was the only hit he gave up.

Steer went deep again leading off the eighth to cut the deficit to 3-2, and without those two swings the Reds never get to the ninth with a chance.

It was a needed night for Steer, who had been hitting around .220 with five home runs before a recent hot stretch started to pull those numbers back toward where he wants them.

The Reds are 31-29 and seven games behind Milwaukee in the NL Central, and the picture got more complicated when Elly De La Cruz went on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain.

De La Cruz had been hitting .280 with 12 home runs and 37 RBIs across 58 games, and manager Terry Francona said he could miss two to four weeks.

That is a long time to go without their best player, especially with the Royals, who have fallen to 23-38, still pushing them to extras on Tuesday.

Cincinnati is going to need the whole roster pitching in, and this game was about as good a template as they could ask for.

Steer gave them a chance, Benson kept the game alive, and Dunn finished it off.