Matt Quatraro Praises Noah Cameron’s Competitiveness Despite Late Trouble

Noah Cameron walked off the mound in the sixth inning Monday night with the kind of line that doesn’t tell the full story, and Matt Quatraro wasn’t interested in letting the final frame define it.

The Kansas City Royals left Dodger Stadium on the wrong end of a 6-5 game, and Cameron was ultimately tagged for four earned runs after Los Angeles broke things open late. But in Quatraro’s eyes, the outing was shaped far more by everything that came before the sixth than what unraveled inside it.

“He was extremely competitive, getting us into the sixth,” Quatraro said postgame, via MLB.com.

That word, competitive, carried more weight than the box score suggested. Cameron was tasked with navigating a Dodgers lineup that rarely gives pitchers much room to breathe, and while the night wasn’t spotless, it also wasn’t chaotic in the way the final inning might imply. He worked quickly at times, maybe a touch too quick early, and there were stretches where Los Angeles extended at-bats and forced him to adjust on the fly. Even so, he kept finding answers.

A double-play ball in the second helped him steady things. A handful of grounders behind it kept innings from snowballing and, just as importantly, kept his pitch count in a place where the Royals could realistically expect him to carry the game deeper. It wasn’t dominant, but it was controlled in the way young starters often have to be when facing a lineup like this. A series of small recoveries that added up to a start that still had shape heading into the sixth.

For five innings, that was enough.

Cameron entered the sixth with the Royals leading 3-2 and had already worked through Mookie Betts and Tommy Edman to get two outs. Then the inning began to unravel.

A single and a double put runners at second and third, prompting Quatraro to turn to the bullpen. John Schreiber walked Kyle Tucker before Max Muncy followed with a bases-clearing double to put Kansas City in a two-run hole.

Cameron took responsibility afterward.

"I think just not getting that last out," Cameron said postgame, via MLB.com's Jack Janes. "Obviously I had a good inning kind of until then."

That last out became the dividing line between what had been a strong start and a disappointing final line.

Quatraro didn't ignore the mistake, either. He pointed to Cameron getting behind Rojas 3-1 earlier in the game, which eventually led to a double, and acknowledged that the sixth had gotten away from him. But the broader evaluation remained positive.

Cameron finished with 5 2/3 innings, six hits, four earned runs, two walks and two strikeouts. More importantly for Kansas City, he kept the Royals within striking distance against a Dodgers lineup that eventually needed to win the game in the seventh.

The offense gave him that chance. After Los Angeles erased the lead, Michael Massey singled to begin the seventh and Kyle Isbel followed with a two-run homer to tie the game. Quatraro specifically pointed to those at-bats as evidence of the same competitiveness he saw from Cameron.

"I'm not surprised the way these guys stay in the game," Quatraro said. "They stay in the fight every night."

That may be the better way to view Cameron's night. The sixth inning was costly, but it came after nearly six innings in which the lefty kept Kansas City within a run of the Dodgers. For a team trying to find something to build on in a difficult season, Quatraro seemed more interested in that part of the outing than the final line suggested.

Cameron put it even more simply afterward.

"We're not done with this year," he declared. "We got a lot of fight."

Monday's loss didn't change that. Quatraro's evaluation of Cameron suggests the same may be true of his confidence in the young left-hander.