If I told you that Noah Cameron was going to pitch 7 innings, strike out a career high 9 batters, and only allow 7 total baserunners, you’d probably imagine he had a pretty good game. What I didn’t tell you, though, was that three of the five hits he allowed were long home runs (tying a career worst), another was a double, and the last one was a single off the wall that saw Samuel Basallo cut down at second by an excellent Jac Caglianone throw. I also didn’t tell you that Orioles starter Kyle Bradish
carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning. So, yeah, the Royals lost 6-1.
As the broadcast remarked multiple times, every time Noah gave up a run, he’d buckle down and get some impressive strikeouts. Perhaps that bodes well for the rest of the season, but for today, it just meant he gave up a lot of runs before pitching quite well. Along with the hits and strikeouts, Cameron gave up a lot of hard contact, so the Orioles were seeing him well. Or perhaps knew where the pitches were going to be. One particularly funny moment happened as Royals’ announcer Eric Hosmer was saying Cameron needed to avoid throwing a fastball to Coby Mayo until he proved he could hit something else. Cameron threw a pretty good slider that was in off the plate, and Mayo still launched it 440 (or more) feet down the left field line for a home run.
Eli Morgan got the eighth inning, pitching for the Royals for the first time in nearly a month, since June 12. It was like he never left, giving up a home run to Henderson on the first pitch he threw.
The Royals scored their lone run in the seventh inning as Bradish was attempting to continue his pursuit of the second no-hitter in MLB this season. Jac Caglianone led off with a single lined over Gunnar Henderson’s head into left. He advanced to second on a groundout by Lane Thomas and to third on a wild pitch ball four to Vinnie Pasquantino. He scored on a sacrifice fly by Salvador Perez.
The Royals only play one more game before the All-Star Break, where three of their players will feature despite the fact that the team has the worst record in baseball. That certainly says something about how the rest of the team has played. Seth Lugo will face off against Shane Baz tomorrow. The game will start at 12:35 Central. Or you could watch Blake Mitchell and Kendry Chourio play in the Futures Game at 11 AM Central. Or the rest of the draft starting at 10:30 AM. Baseball sure knows how to get you excited about the sport!
