Noah Cameron kept rolling Tuesday night, and the Royals rode his latest gem to a 2-1 win over the Twins.
Kansas City didn’t exactly light it up at the plate, but Cameron made sure it didn’t matter. He outlasted Dean Kremer in a game that looked headed for a straight-up pitcher’s duel from the start.
Kremer, making his debut as a Minnesota Twin after being acquired at the trade deadline, worked around traffic early and got through six innings with just one run allowed. Cameron matched him inning for inning before taking over late.
The Twins scratched first in the fourth, and the run came with a little help from Kansas City’s defense. Josh Bell opened the inning with a walk, then Kody Clemens hit a grounder to second that Michael Massey fielded in front of Bell, who had stopped and back-pedaled.
Massey’s throw to first came too late, and Jac Caglianone couldn’t get the ball back to second in time, leaving nobody out. Royce Lewis followed with a bunt single to load the bases, and Cameron got a double play - but the run from third scored anyway.
A strikeout ended the inning, and Minnesota had a 1-0 lead.
Kansas City answered in the fifth. Massey and Isaac Collins opened the frame with back-to-back singles, and when Loftin tried to bunt them over, he popped it up just enough for the Twins to get the force at second. John Rave then worked a walk to load the bases, and Kyle Isbel came through with a sacrifice fly to center to tie it at 1-1.
From there, the game settled back into a tense, low-scoring grind. Kremer was done after six, and for a moment it looked like both starters might walk away with a no-decision. Cameron had other plans.
He breezed through the seventh with a foul out and two strikeouts, then got the support he’d earned in the bottom half. AJ Minter came on for Minnesota and immediately left a cutter in the middle of the plate to Michael Massey, who launched it near the fountains - maybe in - in right field. That put the Royals ahead 2-1.
Even after pushing past 90 pitches, Cameron came back out for the eighth and slammed the door. Trevor Larnach, Ryan Kreidler, and Austin Martin all struck out swinging, and Cameron finished by punching out the final five Twins he faced. His final line: 8 innings, 2 hits, 1 walk, 1 earned run, 9 strikeouts.
Bobby Witt Jr. nearly added some breathing room in the eighth, but his home run was robbed.
Steven Cruz handled the ninth for Kansas City and did it cleanly. Nobody reached base, and he struck out Clemens to end it. For a Royals team that hasn’t always made late leads feel safe, that made for a pretty quiet final frame.
The Royals took the series and will go for the sweep tomorrow. They’re 10-8 since the break and, outside of the mess in Colorado, have been playing solid baseball.
In Other News...
Randy Dobnak Is Giving The Royals Stability Seattle Let Slip Away
Randy Dobnak has quietly become one of the steadier arms in Kansas Citys mix since arriving from Seattle, where he first landed on a minor-league deal and worked for Tacoma before the Royals got him. The move looks even more useful now because Kansas City brought him into a rotation picture that needed dependable innings, and Dobnak has answered with a 2-0 mark and a 1.16 ERA over 31 innings.
For the Mariners, the decision to let him slip through was tied to a crowded rotation and the choice not to keep him on the 40-man roster, which opened the door for Kansas City to step in. The Royals have already benefited from that opening, and the next question is whether Dobnak keeps turning a low-risk pickup into one of the more stabilizing additions on the staff. [Read more 🡒]
Noah Camerons Sudden Royals Breakthrough Has One Clear Turning Point
Noah Camerons latest outing fit the kind of form the Royals have been waiting to see, and it came in a tight 2-1 win over the Twins. He worked eight innings, allowed one run and struck out nine, matching his career highs in both innings and strikeouts while extending a run of back-to-back starts with eight innings and just one earned run allowed across his last 23 innings.
The surge is especially notable because it has come after a rough patch earlier in the summer, when Cameron was searching for answers. His recent turnaround has been tied to a change in how he and the Royals have handled the game plan on the mound, and the difference has been obvious enough that his last several outings now look nothing like the stretch that came before it. [Read more 🡒]
Royals Fans Just Got Two Very Different Signals About The Future
The Royals week offered a tidy snapshot of where the organization stands, from the upper levels of the farm to the big league club. Michael Masseys go-ahead homer helped Kansas City slip past Minnesota 2-1 despite an earlier defensive mistake, while Noah Cameron delivered eight innings of one-run ball and matched career highs in innings and strikeouts. In the minors, Michael Lombardi and Jhon Reyes combined for a no-hitter in a Low-A game, another reminder that the system still has arms worth watching.
At the same time, recent first-round pick Zion Rose got his first taste of pro ball with Quad Cities, a debut that came with the usual growing pains attached. The bigger-picture message for Royals fans is a little harder to pin down, though, because the front office has been signaling patience around the roster while the club keeps trying to balance now and later. There are still questions about how aggressively Kansas City will keep shaping that future, even after one deadline decision in particular helped settle at least part of the conversation. [Read more 🡒]