Noah Cameron’s latest run with the Kansas City Royals looks a lot less like a fluke and a lot more like a pitcher figuring something out in real time.
That was on display again Wednesday, when Kansas City wrapped up its series against the Minnesota Twins with a 2-1 win and took the first two games of the three-game set. Cameron was the driver behind it, working eight strong innings and giving up one earned run on two hits and one walk while tying his career high with nine strikeouts.
The bigger story, though, is what’s been happening behind the scenes. Cameron recently began calling his own pitches, and since that switch, he’s been throwing the best baseball of his season. Jaylon Thompson of The Kansas City Star reported about two weeks ago that Cameron had started doing it, and Wednesday marked his third straight start handling the game that way.
The results have been loud. Over those last three starts, Cameron has logged 23 innings, allowed just one run, struck out 24 and given up only five hits. That stretch has looked a lot like the version of Cameron the Royals saw during his rookie season last year.
Minnesota got a front-row seat to the adjustment twice in that span, and the pitch mix told the story. In his start against the Twins on July 30, Cameron leaned heavily on his changeup, cutter and curveball, according to Statcast, using the changeup 23 times, the cutter 22 times and the curveball 19 times.
On Wednesday, the plan shifted. Cameron still went to the changeup 23 times, but instead of centering the outing around the cutter and curveball, he featured his slider 22 times and his four-seam fastball 20 times.
The change worked. Across those two starts against Minnesota, he allowed just one earned run on three hits and piled up 16 strikeouts.
After a rough opening to the season, Cameron may have found something that sticks. Calling his own pitches has already changed the feel of his year, and it might end up being the move that reshapes what comes next in 2026.
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 🡒]