Noah Cameron struck out six over five scoreless innings, while Maikel Garcia homered with two RBIs, as the host Kansas City Royals won 4-1 over the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday.
Rookie Cameron (5-4) dodged some first-inning trouble to record another solid outing in his 14th career start. The left-hander also allowed three hits with a walk while throwing 83 pitches on a steamy day to lower his ERA to 2.44.
Meanwhile, Garcia led the offense, which managed just four hits, but scored twice in the first inning and cruised to take two of three in this series.
Gabrial Arias clubbed a late solo homer for one of his two hits for the Guardians, who stranded eight runners in falling short of winning their fifth consecutive series.
Cameron loaded the bases with nobody out in his first eight pitches of the game. However, he got Cleveland’s David Fry to pop out to short right field, struck out Carlos Santana and induced an inning-ending ground out to Arias.
Meanwhile, the Royals didn’t waste their opportunity in the bottom of the first against the Guardians’ Joey Cantillo (2-1). Jonathan India opened with a walk and went to third on Bobby Witt Jr.’s double to right field. Run-scoring ground outs from Vinnie Pasquantino and Garcia followed for a 2-0 Kansas City lead.
The Royals added a run in the fourth. John Rave walked, then showed off his speed by scoring from first on Luke Maile’s double into the left-field gap that was cut off by Steven Kwan.
Cantillo’s day ended after allowing those three runs, three hits and walking four with four strikeouts over four innings. Matt Festa came on in the fifth and yielded that line-drive homer over the left-field fence to Garcia.
Cleveland finally got on the board in the seventh when Arias sent an opposite-field drive into the fountains in right off Angel Zerpa.
Kansas City All-Star Carlos Estevez allowed Arias’ lead-off double in the ninth, then retired the next three batters for his 27th save.
–Field Level Media
