KANSAS CITY – This version of Noah Cameron is what he and the Royals have wanted to see all year, what they hope to see the rest of this season – and what they need to see next season.
Cameron tossed eight innings of one-run ball in the Royals’ 2-1 win over the Twins on Wednesday night, allowing just two hits, matching his career high in innings that he set last week against this same Twins team and matching his career high in strikeouts (nine) that he set on July 11 against the Orioles.
It marked back-to-back starts of eight innings for Cameron and just one earned run in his last 23 innings since July 24. And it capped a particularly dominant run against the Twins this season in which Cameron allowed two earned runs in 27 innings in his four starts against them.
“The only silver lining,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said, “is we don't have to face him again.”
At 95 pitches when he ended the seventh inning, it seemed like Cameron’s outstanding night was over – until he jogged back out to the mound and made it an even more impressive night. The Royals had reliever John Schreiber ready in the bullpen, but Cameron needed 11 more pitches to strike out the side and get a nice ovation from the crowd as he strutted off the mound for the final time Wednesday.
“Always nice to go out with a good one,” Cameron said.
Cameron’s finish to the 2026 season is as important as anything down the stretch. We all know where the Royals’ rotation stands heading into ‘27: Cameron is one of the only three starters the Royals know will begin next year in the rotation. They need him to be healthy, and they need him to be steady.
He sure has looked the part in his last three appearances.
It started in Detroit, when Beck Way opened for him and then Cameron tossed seven scoreless innings in relief. That outing came on the heels of a seven-start stretch in which he posted a 7.97 ERA. Clearly, something had to change, and he revealed he called his own pitches via his PitchCom device instead of having the catcher call them from behind the plate.
It led to more conviction in each pitch from Cameron, and now it’s only building with each start.
“I think his back was against the wall a little bit,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “He believes in himself. That’s something we’ve talked about a lot since he came up. I think he challenged himself to be better, and you’re seeing the results of that.”
Cameron followed his relief appearance up with his best start of the season, tossing a career-high eight innings last week in Minnesota. Facing the Twins again on Wednesday, Cameron didn’t change his gameplan much, leading with his changeup and not throwing a ton of fastballs, but he did throw significantly more sliders than last time, using it 21% of the time Wednesday compared to 12% last week.
“Trying to be as convicted and confident in it as I can,” Cameron said. “Trying to throw it for strikes early and trying to throw it in the dirt late. When that pitch is on, it opens up everything else.”
Cameron’s exclamation point Wednesday was the eighth inning, but his turning point was the fourth. He walked Josh Bell, but it was about to be erased when Kody Clemens hit what should have been a double-play ball. Instead, second baseman Michael Massey double-clutched as he fielded it near second base, then threw to first base too late, so no outs were recorded. Royce Lewis bunted to load the bases.
But Bobby Witt Jr. made an excellent stop on Victor Caratini’s ground ball up the middle and turned a double play with Massey. Bell scored, which snapped a 19-inning scoreless streak for Cameron – 18 of which all came when he started calling his own pitches. Cameron struck out Brooks Lee to get out of the frame without further damage.
He retired the final 14 batters he faced.
That run weighed heavily on Massey’s mind because of how well Cameron was pitching, but Massey made up for it in the fifth with a leadoff single that eventually came around to score the game-tying run. And then Massey really made up for it in the seventh with a go-ahead, Statcast-projected 422-foot homer off new Twins lefty reliever A.J. Minter.
“I felt like crap, right?” Massey said. “Cam’s throwing really well. He’s got freakin’ two hits up there. He gets an earned run for that. You hurt the team, and it doesn’t feel good. To be able to get an opportunity to give that back and come through definitely fired me up a little bit.”