By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph's Noah Cameron made his first Cactus League start for the Kansas City Royals on Sunday against the Milwaukee Brewers where the Royals came away with a 5-2 victory.
Cameron opened up the game hot in his fourth appearance of spring training, making quick work of the Brewers with a 1-2-3 inning. The Royals went on to take the lead in the bottom half of the inning, thanks to new leadoff hitter Jonathan India, who hit his first home run of the spring to left field.
After Cameron gave up a leadoff double to Mark Cahna to start the second inning, he got Oliver Dunn to ground out and Manuel Margot to fly out, before striking out Jake Bauers with a curveball to end the inning.
After Kansas City failed to score in the bottom half of the inning, Milwaukee tied up the game in the top of the third. Cameron struck out Eric Haase to start the inning, but gave up a single to Raynel Delgado. As Delgado stole second, on a 3-2 pickoff move, first baseman Jac Caglianone threw the ball off his back, and into the outfield allowing Delgado to advance to third. After a Sal Frelick walk, Delgado scored on a sacrifice fly by Vinny Capra.
Caglianone made up for his mistake in the bottom half of the inning, hitting his third home run of spring training, 444 feet to right field for a monster blast, again putting Cameron in position to earn a win in his first spring start.
Carlos Hernandez relieved Cameron in the fourth inning and walked Cahna, who advanced to second on a wild pitch. After forcing Dunn and Margot to fly out, Bauers hit a double to drive in Cahna and tie the game up once more.
The game remained tied until the sixth inning where Maikel Garcia drove in MJ Melendez after he tripled. Kansas City scored two more runs in the eighth, Daniel Vazquez driving in Payton Wilson with an RBI triple and then scoring one batter later on a fielding error.
Cameron earned a no decision in the game, pitching three innings, striking out two batters, giving up two hits, walking one, and giving up one unearned run. Austin Cox earned the win.
Through spring training Cameron has continued to impress the Royals and fans. Through his four appearances he's pitched 10 innings and has struck out seven batters with a 3.60 ERA with one save.
The Royals matchup with the Cleveland Guardians on Monday. First pitch is at 3:05. The next broadcast of Royals spring training on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM) will be on Tuesday against the Texas Rangers with coverage beginning at 2pm.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.