Noah Cameron allows two homers, six runs in loss

The 27-year-old southpaw punched out two batters on the night. While the Tigers put traffic on the bases against him in four of his five innings, they never seriously threatened. Cameron got eight swings and misses on 85 pitches on the evening, posting a CSW of 20 percent. Now 8-8 on the season, he’ll try to further improve upon his 4.02 ERA and 1.21 WHIP (143 1/3 innings) when he does battle against the Blue Jays in Toronto on Thursday.

The only hit Cameron allowed was a single by Vaughn Grissom. The left-hander was outstanding while striking out eight, issuing just one walk and throwing 73-of-115 pitches for strikes. Cameron has now gone at least eight innings in three of his last four starts, a development no one could have seen coming based on his struggles for the majority of the year. A chance to do it again is scheduled for Friday against the Tigers.

Cameron generated 13 whiffs tonight but finished with only two strikeouts. His cutter was particularly ineffective; he threw it 22 times and gave up three hits while generating zero whiffs and only two called strikes. While others have had success lately in ramping up their fastball usage against the Dodgers, Cameron, who has experienced a velocity boost over the last month, threw four-seamers and sinkers only 21 times in the 101-pitch outing. Notably, he gave up zero hits on those pitches. Things will probably go better next time out against the Angels.

Cameron was simply masterful here. He mixed his changeup, slider, fastball, cutter, and curveball nearly evenly and all five of those pitches forced multiple swings-and-misses. His slider was especially lethal with seven whiffs of its own as he located beautifully running inside on right-handed batters. With that pitch and his cutter brushing righties back, changeups falling away from them on the outside, curveballs attacking their back foot, and elevated fastballs forcing them to respect the heat you could see how beautifully Cameron’s different pitches play off each other when everything’s clicking. And things are clicking lately as Cameron has allowed just one run over his last three starts spanning 23 innings with 24 strikeouts and six walks. He has a tall task up next though heading to Los Angeles to face the Dodgers before taking on the Angels in the second leg of a two-start week.

And he didn’t manage to win the game, somehow, because baseball’s funny like that. Cameron was through six innings with a no-hitter but allowed a dunk single in front of an outfielder to Ryan Jeffers. No matter, Cameron went right back to dominating as he got six straight outs to end his start. Like his start last week, Cameron showed a tick higher on his fastball (maxing at 94.9 mph) and managed a 33 percent whiff rate. Things have looked much better for him of late. He also gets the Twins again next week, so assuming Byron Buxton is still out, that should be another tasty matchup.

Unfortunately for Cameron, Beck Way opened and gave up two of the game’s three runs with Tarik Skubal lurking on the other side. Cameron struck out eight and looked as good as we’ve seen him all season, with a 40 percent whiff rate and his average velocity up a few ticks across the board. There’s not really a great reason to get excited about firing up Cameron against the Twins next week given how his season has gone, but maybe he’s turning a corner at the right time.

It sounds like the Royals might use an opener in front of Cameron, though assuming it’s a right-hander, that will just invite the Tigers to stack lefties at the top of the order. Assuming the Royals follow through with the idea, it’d be Cameron’s first relief appearance after 43 starts to begin his major league career.

At least that’s better than the 12 runs the Royals gave up in four innings after Cameron departed. Cameron, who fanned 16 over 12 innings in his final two starts of the first half, struck out just one of the 26 batters he faced today. He’s given up at least five runs and taken a loss in four of his last five starts, leaving him 5-8 with a 5.27 ERA this season. Still, his rotation spot is most likely safe. He’ll face the Tigers next weekend.

Cameron gave up five hits, walked two and struck out nine. He fell to 5-7 with the loss. Cameron was done in by the long ball as four of the five runs he allowed came on three of the home runs he allowed. He’s now allowed 13 home runs in 95 2/3 innings (1.22 HR/9). Cameron takes a 4.89 ERA into the All-Star break, though his 4.15 xFIP points to better starts ahead in the second half.

The Phillies had runners on against Cameron in every inning, loading the bases in both the first and second, but they couldn’t break through. In all, Cameron allowed six hits and walked five. Somehow, he gave up the two farthest-hit balls of the game, doubles from Alec Bohm (414 feet) and Trea Turner (406 feet), even as the Royals outhomered the Phillies 4-0. Encouraging was that Cameron’s fastball velocity was back up to 92.7 mph today. He’s averaged 92.4 mph this year, but he was down to 91.3 mph while giving up six runs to the Rays last time out. He improved to 5-6 with a 4.77 ERA ahead of his final start of the first half Saturday against the Orioles.