MINNEAPOLIS -- The Royals were one out -- one pitch -- away from ending Thursday’s game in Minnesota, shaking hands and enjoying a happy flight to Denver.
But in the span of four batters, the Twins erased a three-run deficit and sent the Royals packing after completing a stunning comeback.
Noah Cameron pitched eight scoreless innings, but reliever Lucas Erceg, who set down the first two batters, loaded the bases in the ninth to set up Kody Clemens’ two-out, two-strike walk-off grand slam off Matt Strahm as the Twins handed the Royals a heartbreaking 4-3 loss.
“We got beat. Nobody’s gonna be happy about that,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “These guys take a lot of pride in what they do, and we weren't able to finish it off.”
Erceg inherited a 3-0 lead from Cameron when he took over in the ninth, and all seemed well as he got two quick outs by fanning Trevor Larnach and retiring Victor Caratini on a soft liner to shortstop. But Erceg hit Ryan Jeffers with a pitch, and Royce Lewis followed with a slow roller up the middle for a single.
Josh Bell fell behind 0-2, but then worked the count full before taking a close pitch for a ball to load the bases -- after catcher Salvador Perez challenged the call unsuccessfully. Quatraro then turned to the lefty Strahm to face the left-handed hitting Clemens, who coming into the game had 18 home runs this year but only four against left-handers.
Strahm (7.01 ERA) got ahead 0-2 on two sinkers -- one called for a strike and one fouled away. But then he threw another breaking ball, and Clemens launched it into the stands above the scoreboard in right-center field.
“It was supposed to be a sweeper, and I left it in the zone,” said Strahm, who has allowed eight homers in his last 18 1/3 innings dating back to June 1.
Quatraro noted that Erceg was more of a victim of bad luck than bad pitching in the ninth.
“He threw the ball well,” Quatraro said. “The sinker [to Jeffers] got away from him, and then the ground ball [by Lewis] was a weak ground ball and it found its way up the middle. If that's hit to somebody, we're having a different discussion.”
The ninth inning stole the spotlight from Cameron, who took a no-hitter into the seventh and ended up pitching a career-high eight innings. He allowed no runs and allowed just one hit and two walks to go along with seven strikeouts over 97 pitches (62 strikes).
“We were just attacking the zone, attacking guys, and keeping guys off balance,” Cameron said.
Cameron was coming off his best appearance of the season, when he threw seven scoreless innings after reliever Beck Way opened and pitched the first inning in Detroit on July 24. Cameron looked much more like the pitcher who posted a 2.99 ERA last season as a rookie in that outing, when he started calling his own pitches. That strategy continued against the Twins.
Plus, he says he got mad.
“I think I’m just kind of tired of not pitching well,” Cameron said. “So just have a chip on my shoulder a little bit, trying to pitch a little bit more angry.”
Relying mostly on a mix of changeups, cutters and four-seam fastballs, Cameron kept the Twins off balance and out of the hit column until Jeffers led off the seventh with a drive to right-center that fell for a single.
“He couldn't have been much better,” Quatraro said. “I mean, he took a no-hitter into the seventh, goes through the lineup three times. Good pitch efficiency, and like we saw in Detroit, the breaking balls were good.”
Jac Caglianone, John Rave, Isaac Collins and Tyler Tolbert each had two hits for the Royals. Caglianone hit a Statcast-projected 438-foot two-run homer in the third inning to start the scoring, but the offense could only add one more run, which scored on a Twins error in the fifth.
Now the task is to put the loss behind them and pick up Erceg and Strahm after their tough outings.
“Just make sure nobody feels alienated,” Caglianone said. “I mean, I've cost us some games. Everybody has cost us some games at any point. We’re a team for a reason. You pick each other up at the end of the day.”