By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph's Noah Cameron put on his best performance of the season, giving up just one hit, but Lucas Erceg's fourth consecutive blown save led to extra innings and a walk off single, and the Kansas City Royals fell 4-3 to the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ballpark.
Cameron allowed one hit, Spencer Steer's solo home run in the fifth inning, and struck out eight with no walks in seven innings. Kansas City had lost eight of Cameron's 10 starts this season but he was dominant on Tuesday, tying career highs with seven innings pitched and eight strikeouts. The St. Joseph Central alum, who took a no-hitter into the seventh inning in his major league debut on April 30th last season, retired the first 13 batters he faced against the Reds with four strikeouts.
The Royals gave Cameron a lead to work with too, scoring all three of their runs in the fourth inning. Loading the bases with singles by Salvador Perez, Starling Marte, and Nick Loftin, with one out, Jac Caglianone drove the first run in on a groundout, scoring Perez. Tyler Tolbert walked to load the bases with two outs, and Michael Massey drove in the final two runs with a single, bringing home Marte and Loftin for the 3-0 lead.
With one out in the fifth inning, Steer hit a solo home run for the Reds' first hit. Cameron struck out three batters in the fifth, one prior to Steer's home run, and went on to retire seven straight following the home run. Matt Strahm replaced Cameron in the eighth inning, and surrendered a second home run to Steer, cutting the lead to one, then in the ninth inning Will Benson hit a lead off home run off Erceg, tying the game and giving Cameron a no decision.
The Royals had a chance in the 10th inning with runners on the corners after Vinnie Pasquantino grounded out, moving inherited runner Carter Jensen to third base, and Nick Loftin being walked by Brock Burke. But Burke bounced back, getting Caglianone to line out, and striking out Kyle Isbel to strand the runners. In the bottom half, against John Schreiber now, with one out Blake Dunn singled into right field, scoring Steer for the winning run. Schreiber fell to 0-3 on the season with the loss.
At the plate, the Royals had just five hits total. Massey was 1-for-4 with two RBIs. Bobby Witt Jr was 0-for-3 on the day, but walked twice and stole two bases. Caglianone was also 0-for-3 with a walk and an RBI, stealing one base.
Kansas City and Cincinnati wrap up their series tomorrow in the rubber match. Stephen Kolek (3-1, 3.48 ERA, 19K's) will start for the Royals against Chase Burns (7-1, 1.96 ERA, 72K's), originally set to start the series opener, for the Reds. First pitch is at 6:10pm, pregame will begin at 5:30 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
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