Noah Cameron continued the stellar start to his major league career, allowing a single run while pitching into the seventh inning as the Kansas City Royals beat the visiting Cincinnati Reds 3-2 on Wednesday night.
Cameron (2-1), who hails from nearby St. Joseph, Mo., yielded only a sixth-inning run on six hits and two walks over 6 1/3 innings in his fourth career start. According to MLB, Cameron is just the second pitcher since 1893 to go 6 1/3-plus innings and allow one run or fewer in his first four career starts. The left-hander boasts a 1.05 ERA.
He set the tempo Wednesday for the Royals, who avoided being swept in the three-game set after allowing seven runs in each of the first two contests.
Spencer Steer had three hits and two RBIs, while Tyler Stephenson also recorded three singles for the Reds. Making his second start since missing a little more than two weeks with a right groin strain, Cincinnati’s Hunter Greene (4-3) allowed two runs on seven hits and a walk over five innings.
Kansas City’s Maikel Garcia extended his hitting streak to 13 games by lining the ball off Greene’s calf in the fourth. Then Drew Waters sent a smash just under the glove of Reds second baseman Matt McLain, and Garcia, running on the pitch, scored from first.
Kansas City made it 2-0 in the fifth. John Rave doubled to right for his first big-league hit and eventually scored on Bobby Witt Jr.’s double down the right-field line.
In the sixth, Cameron walked Austin Hays, who exited later with a bruised foot, then yielded back-to-back singles to left field by Stephenson and Steer. The latter brought home the Reds’ first run.
Cameron exited with one out and a man on in the seventh. Angel Zerpa then allowed an infield hit to TJ Friedl but got Santiago Espinal to ground into a 5-4-3 double play.
The Royals had runners on second and third with nobody out in the bottom of that frame, but managed only one run via Witt’s sacrifice fly.
Cincinnati got within a run in the eighth when Elly De La Cruz doubled then scored on Steer’s single.
