By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph's Noah Cameron continued to make a strong case for his consideration to be named the American League Rookie of the Year, putting together another strong performance as the Kansas City Royals beat the Cleveland Guardians 4-1 on a steamy Sunday afternoon to clinch a crucial series in the American League Central.
Cameron threw five scoreless innings, striking out six batters, while giving up just three hits and walking one throwing 83 pitches on way to his fifth win of the season. Backed by Maikel Garcia homering for the second time in as many games, Cameron even made a dazzling defensive play on the mound snagging a ball behind his back before flipping it to first for an out.
Following Cameron's stellar defensive play to end the threat in the first inning, the Royals scored two runs in the bottom half of the inning. Jonathan India walked and Bobby Witt Jr doubled, putting two runners in scoring position right away for Kansas City. Back to back groundouts by Vinnie Pasquantino and Garcia drove in both India and Witt Jr to give Kansas City the 2-0 lead.
In the fourth inning, the Royals extended the lead after John Rave walked and Luke Maile hit his first double of the season to drive in Rave. Then in the fifth inning, with two outs, Garcia put up the final run Kansas City needed, blasting his 10th home run of the season to left center field.
After Hunter Harvey threw a scoreless sixth inning, relieving Cameron, Angel Zerpa came on in the seventh and gave up a leadoff home run to Gabriel Arias for the lone Cleveland run. With the save situation in place, after Lucas Erceg threw a scoreless eighth inning, Carlos Estévez came on in the ninth, giving up a double to Arias before retiring the next three batters for his 27th save.
At the plate, Garcia was 1-for-3 with the home run and two RBIs. Kansas City was outhit on the day seven to four, with three other Royals getting one hit each on the day.
Kansas City will next host Atlanta at Kauffman Stadium. Rich Hill (0-1, 1.80 ERA) takes the mound for the Royals against Spencer Strider (4-8, 3.72 ERA) for the Braves. First pitch tomorrow is at 6:40pm, pregame coverage begins at 6pm on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
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