By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph’s Noah Cameron struggled slightly with his command in his fourth major league start, throwing 59 strikes on 92 pitches, but earned his first win at Kauffman Stadium as the Kansas City Royals avoided being swept by the Cincinnati Reds with a 3-2 victory on Wednesday night.
Cameron though, held the Reds scoreless and to just three hits through five innings, while the Royals gave him a lead scoring a run in the fourth inning, Maikel Garcia singling and then scoring all the way from first base on a single by Drew Waters, and then extending the lead in the fifth as John Rave doubled for his first major league hit, and then scored on a double by Bobby Witt Jr after advancing to third base on a sacrifice bunt by Dairon Blanco.
Back to back ground outs by Santiago Espinal and Elly De La Cruz opened the sixth inning for Cameron, but then the left handed pitcher ran into trouble and walked Austin Hays, before surrendering back to back singles to Tyler Stephenson and Spencer Steer, scoring Hays and cutting the Royals lead to 2-1.
After Kansas City was unable add any runs in the bottom of the sixth, Cameron started out the seventh getting Matt McLain to fly out to center field but walked Garrett Hampson before being replaced by Angel Zerpa. Zerpa gave up a single to TJ Friedl, but then forced Espinal to ground into a double play ending the inning. The Royals went on to extend their lead in the seventh inning, Kyle Isbel and Jonathan India walking, both advancing on a wild pitch, Isbel scoring on a sacrifice fly by Witt Jr.
In the eighth inning, De La Cruz doubled off Zerpa to lead off the inning, and Royals manager Matt Quatraro went to the bullpen again calling on John Schreiber. Schreiber allowed the run to score, though it was charged to Zerpa, as Steer singled later in the inning driving in De La Cruz, before Carlos Estévez came on for the last out of the eighth, before staying on for the ninth to earn his 15th save.
Cameron improved to 2-1 with the win, pitching 6 1/3 innings and giving up one run on six hits, walking two and striking out two. Cameron is just the second pitcher since 1893 with 6 1/3+ innings pitched and one run or less in his first four MLB starts. India and Garcia led the way at the plate, India going 2-for-3 and Garcia going 2-for-4 with one run scored, in the win.
Noah Cameron is the 2nd pitcher since 1893 with 6.1+ IP and 1 run or less in his first 4 MLB starts 🤯
(H/T @EliasSports) pic.twitter.com/5x4tDTRlrd
— MLB (@MLB) May 29, 2025
Kansas City is off on Thursday. Kansas City hosts Detroit on Friday at Kauffman Stadium. Seth Lugo (3-4, 3.02 ERA) is slated to start for the Royals, returning from the injured list, against Casey Mize (6-1, 2.45 ERA) for the Tigers. First pitch Friday is at 7:10pm, pregame coverage will begin at 6:30 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.