​If I told you Noah Cameron was slated to go seven innings while punching out a career-high nine batters and allowing only seven baserunners, you’d probably figure he turned in a solid start. What I didn’t reveal is that three of the five hits he allowed were long home runs, tying a career worst, alongside a double and a wall-scraping single that Samuel Basallo barely beat out at second on a superb throw from Jac Caglianone. I also didn’t mention that Orioles starter Kyle Bradish carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning. So, yes, the Royals fell 6-1.
As the broadcast pointed out repeatedly, each time Cameron surrendered a run, he bounced back with impressive strikeouts. That resilience could bode well for the rest of the season, but on this day it translated into a lot of runs allowed before he settled in and delivered a strong stretch of pitching. Cameron also yielded a great deal of hard contact, suggesting the Orioles were seeing him well, or perhaps had a good sense of where his pitches would end up. A memorable moment came when Royals announcer Eric Hosmer warned Cameron to avoid fastballs to Coby Mayo until he proved he could hit something else. Cameron did throw a fairly good slider—an off-the-plate pitch that Mayo still launched 440 feet (and beyond) down the left-field line for a home run.
Eli Morgan took the mound for the Royals in the eighth inning, returning to the rotation for the first time in nearly a month since June 12. It felt as if he hadn’t left at all, as he immediately surrendered a home run to Henderson on the very first pitch he threw.
The Royals finally dented the scoreboard in the seventh inning as Bradish pressed on in his bid for a second no-hitter this season. Jac Caglianone led off with a single, slicing past Gunnar Henderson’s head into left field. He moved to second on a groundout by Lane Thomas and advanced to third on a wild pitch to Vinnie Pasquantino. He came home on a sacrifice fly by Salvador Perez, providing the Royals’ lone run of the day.
Looking ahead, the Royals have just one more game before the All-Star break, a stretch that will feature three of their players despite the team’s current position with the worst record in baseball. That fact underscores how the rest of the roster has performed and sets the stage for the second half of the season. Seth Lugo is scheduled to face Shane Baz in tomorrow’s matchup, with first pitch set for 12:35 p.m. Central. If you’d rather watch Futures Game action, Blake Mitchell and Kendry Chourio will be on display at 11:00 a.m. Central, followed by the rest of the draft coverage starting at 10:30 a.m. Baseball always has a way of building excitement around the sport, even during a tough day for a franchise.