KANSAS CITY -- It’s been a near fairytale start to the Major League career of Noah Cameron.
The 25-year-old native of St. Joseph, Mo., grew up going to Royals games and has now thrown two gems in his first pair of starts in the Majors for his hometown team.
Cameron, the Royals' No. 5 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, threw 6 1/3 innings and gave up just one run on two hits as Kansas City fell to the St. Louis Cardinals, 1-0, on Saturday night at Kauffman Stadium.
“It was good, first off you just can’t make it up being here,” Cameron said. “It wasn’t the debut but it was still more special than Tampa with all the family and friends and everybody here, it was amazing. Obviously I wish we could’ve got the win, but that’s baseball.”
His emergence as a starter for the Royals comes at a perfect time as their starting rotation was depleted on Saturday.
American League All-Stars Seth Lugo (right third finger sprain) and Cole Ragans (left groin strain) were both placed on the 15-day injured list before Saturday’s contest. It’s a major blow to a rotation that has a 3.03 ERA, third-best in the Majors. The good news is that it is still early in the season, and although there is never a good time for injuries, Ragans said he would rather it happen now than later.
“At the end of the year you’re making a push and getting ready for the playoffs,” Ragans said. “You don’t want to be hurt then, you want to be healthy. There’s never a good time to go on the IL, but if there is a time, it’s earlier rather than later.”
Cameron, who was selected by the Royals in the seventh round of the 2021 MLB Draft, started in place of Lugo on Saturday.
“Too many to count,” Cameron said when asked how many family and friends were in attendance. “We had all the immediate family in a suite and then thousands probably [throughout the stadium]. St. Joseph showed out.”
Cameron struck out three and didn’t allow a walk in his home debut.
“I think just getting weak contact and attacking the zone in these first two starts,” Cameron said. “I’ve struggled with command in Triple-A but today I attacked the zone with all five pitches and let them hit it.”
Cameron gave up his first hit of the game in the fifth inning, which came after he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning in his debut against the Tampa Bay Rays on April 30.
Cameron became the first pitcher since at least 1901 to begin his career with back-to-back starts of 6 1/3 innings or more and two or fewer hits allowed.
“That’s pretty cool,” Cameron said after hearing of making history. “Weak contact, good defense, it’s not just me out there, but yeah that’s pretty cool.”
His first and only blemish in his MLB career thus far came in the sixth inning -- Jordan Walker hit a 1-1 four-seam fastball a Statcast-projected 422 feet over the left-field fence for the only run of the game.
The Royals will find out just how deep their pitching staff is after losing their two aces. It’s also a chance to see if the offense can provide some scoring relief. The Royals have scored more than three runs just twice in their last nine games and had just four hits in Saturday’s loss.
Kansas City had men on first and second with no outs in the eighth inning, but a wild fielder’s choice double play followed by a groundout by Bobby Witt Jr. ended the Royals’ best scoring chance of the game.
“[Miles] Mikolas was good today, but we just need to get better, including myself,” catcher Salvador Perez said. “We need to figure out what we’re doing right now hitting [wise] and try to help my team to win.”
Before the game, the Royals’ 2015 team was recognized and celebrated for their World Series championship, with the likes of Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain in attendance.
“It’s obviously super cool, even just warming up and being able to watch them do their thing and watch the highlights, it definitely brought back some good memories,” Cameron said. “It made it extra special.”
Cameron said he had a chance to soak in the moment before the game, fulfilling a lifelong goal.
“Walking out to the field, it was really cool just looking around and obviously I’ve been in this ballpark a lot, but it’s definitely a different view from on the field,” Cameron said. “It’s a dream come true.”