Noah Cameron carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning and threw eight shutout innings on Thursday.
Noah Cameron did everything right on Thursday afternoon in Minneapolis.
He walked Austin Martin as the lead off hitter, struck out seven, walked just two, and needed only 97 pitches to get through eight scoreless innings.
Ryan Jeffers broke up the no-hit bid with a single in the seventh, but Cameron came right back out for the eighth and put up another zero.
It was the best start of his young career by a wide margin, and it deserved a win.
Jac Caglianone had given Cameron a cushion early with a two-run home run in the third inning, a shot to right field that left in a hurry.
An unearned run in the fifth pushed the lead to 3-0, and the Royals looked like they were going to cruise through the finale of the three-game series.
Then the ninth inning fell apart.
Lucas Erceg came on to close it out and retired the first two batters, but he hit Jeffers with a pitch, gave up a single to Royce Lewis, and walked Josh Bell on a full count to load the bases.
Matt Strahm entered to face Kody Clemens, and on an 0-2 count, Clemens drove a grand slam to right-center field to give the Twins a 4-3 win.
"He couldn't have been much better," Matt Quatraro said of Cameron after the game, per MLB.com. "I mean, he took a no-hitter into the seventh, goes through the lineup three times."
The Deadline Is Three Days Away
Losses like this one land differently when a team is sitting at 46-64 and the August 3 trade deadline is coming Monday.
The Royals are 18 games under .500 and firmly in the conversation as sellers, with veterans on expiring deals likely to draw interest from contenders.
The front office has decisions to make about which pieces to move and which ones to build around, and a game like Thursday only makes that conversation more complicated because Cameron looked like someone worth keeping.
Caglianone is in that same category.
The first baseman went 2-for-4 with a home run and is one of the young bats in the lineup who keep showing that the talent is there even when the wins are not.
He said after the game that the team needs to support each other because everyone has cost the group a game at some point, and that response from a young player says something about the culture Kansas City is trying to build.
What the Future Could Look Like
The trade deadline will bring changes, and this weekend's series in Colorado will feel different with all the noise around the roster.
But Cameron's start was a reminder that the Royals have real arms coming up through the system.
He threw 62 strikes out of 97 pitches, kept hitters off balance with his sinker and breaking ball, and looked nothing like the pitcher who carried a 4.93 ERA into the game.
Starts like that do not fix a losing season, but they do give a front office something to point to when the rebuilding plan comes up.
Kansas City opens a series in Colorado on Friday, and for Cameron, Thursday was proof that he can be part of whatever comes next.
