By MATT PIKE
While it wasn't his most effecient night on the mound, St. Joseph's Noah Cameron grinded out enough to get a win in the 14-6 victory for the Kansas City Royals over the St. Louis Cardinals at Kauffman Stadium to open the second half of the I-70 series.
Cameron battled through five innings, getting into some long counts at times, throwing a near career high 108 pitches giving up eight hits and four runs, three earned, while walking two and striking out six. Cameron's career high in pitches came last season, in his rookie campaign, throwing 109 pitches against the Pittsburgh Pirates, which came in seven innings of work.
Manager Matt Quatraro says it was a grind from the beginning of the game for Cameron.
"Just seemed like he couldn't land the breaking balls as much as he would like and they battled him, there were a lot of tough at bats," Quatraro tells reporters after the game.
Cameron faced a six pitch walk against Iván Herrera, which set up the first run of the game, a seven pitch walk to Nelson Velázquez, a six pitch at bat against José Fermín that ended with a single, an eight pitch strikeout to Pedro Pagés, a six pitch strikeout to Velázquez, and a six pitch at bat to Masyn Winn that ended with a double as some of the longer at bats that ballooned his pitch count.
Cameron also says it was a battle against the Redbird hitters and says he attempted to nibble at the zone too much with the Royals holding a big lead.
"It's just kind of I've got to attack a little better, just have quick innings," Cameron explains. "If i give up a couple hits it kind of happens, but days like today I should have been just a little more on the attack and we didn't do that today."
After Cameron surrendered the lead in the first inning to the Cardinals, JJ Wetherholt scoring as Jordan Walker reached on an error, the gap grew later in the inning on a sacrifice fly by Alec Burleson. In the bottom half of the inning the Royals cut the lead in half to back Cameron, Bobby Witt Jr hitting a solo home run to make it 2-1 St. Louis at the end of the first inning.
Cameron settled in after the first inning, giving up just a two out double to Wetherholt in the second before escaping. In the bottom half of the second inning, the Royals offense exploded. Back-to-back doubles from Salvador Perez and Carter Jensen tied the game. A one out double by Isaac Collins scored Jensen to give Kansas City the lead for good after that.
Collins scored as Michael Massey reached on a fielding error, and Massey came home on a double from Lane Thomas, who scored on an RBI single from Witt Jr. Witt advanced to second on the throw, and also scored with two outs in the inning on the fifth double of the inning as Starling Marte drove him in, before Perez grounded out to end the inning with the Royals up 7-2.
Walker drove in Blaze Jordan in the fourth inning for St. Louis to cut into the Kansas City lead, but in the bottom half of the inning the Royals continued to pour it on scoring four more runs. Jac Caglianone started the scoring with a two run home run after Tyler Tolbert walked to start the inning. Tolbert entered the game in the fourth after Witt Jr injured his knee on a diving stop, potentially as he was rolling over to throw the ball to first, finishing the top half of the inning but leaving the game with right knee soreness to start the bottom half.
Leading 9-3, Nick Loftin doubled to extend the lead for Kansas City, driving in Marte and Jensen with one out. The Cardinals scoredone more run in the top of the fifth inning with an RBI single from José Fermín bringing home Masyn Winn, then in the bottom of the sixth inning history happened at Kauffman Stadium as Perez extended the lead with a solo home run.
The home run was the 137th of Perez's career at 'The K', pushing the Royals Captain past George Brett for the most home runs in the 54 year history of the stadium, a record Brett has held since passing Amos Otis on Aug. 24th, 1985. Perez says hitting the mark is an amazing feeling.
"Especially to pass a Hall of Famer like George Brett, I've got an opportunity to spend a lot of time with him," Perez says. "One of the best, one of the greatest, so it feels pretty good."
With that record out of the way for Perez, he’s one step closer to the next Brett record he’s chasing with the blast being his 313th career home run, putting him just four home runs away from tying Brett for the all-time franchise home run record and five away from surpassing the greatest Royal of all time.
Quatraro calls his Captain a legend and says everything he does is another milestone.
"I think that was huge, I'm glad that they recognized it in front of the home crowd while it was the same night so everyone here got to applaud him," Quatraro says. "But, the guys a legend, and everything he does is another milestone, and then not only the home run but he got us going with the double, it's a three hit night, a line out to center as well, so that was really encouraging."
A groundout by Fermín that brought home Winn and a sacrifice fly from Pagés that drove in Jordan were the final runs for St. Louis in the seventh inning. In the bottom half, the Royals scored a run with an RBI single by Thomas, bringing Collins across home, added a run before Kansas City score the final run in the eighth inning on a passed ball with Marte coming home after he singled to lead off the inning.
Cameron improved to .500 with the win, moving to 4-4 on the season. At the plate, the Royals had a season high 17 hits with Marte leading the way going 3-for-5 with a double, an RBI, and two runs scored. Witt Jr. was 2-for-2 with a home run and two RBI's before exiting the game, while Thomas and Loftin were both 2-for-5 with two RBI's, Thomas hitting a double and Loftin hitting two.
For the Cardinals, Matthew Liberatore took the loss, falling to 3-4 on the season giving up seven runs, five earned, on seven hits with two strikeouts. At the plate, Wetherholt was 3-for-4 with a double. Winn was 3-for-5 with a double and two runs scored while Fermín was 2-for-5 with two RBI's. Burleson saw his 17 game hit streak come to an end, going 0-for-3 with a walk, driving in a run.
Kansas City and St. Louis continue their series on Friday, before an off day on Saturday due to World Cup action at Arrowhead Stadium. Seth Lugo (2-4, 3.86 ERA, 66K's) makes his return to the mound for the Royals after taking a line drive to the forehead against the Texas Rangers taking on Michael McGreevy (3-5, 2.99 ERA, 51K's) for the Cardinals.
First pitch is at 7:15pm. Royals pregame can be heard starting at 6:30 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM). Cardinals coverage can be heard on KY 102 (102.5 FM) starting at 7pm.
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.