Despite a gem spun by Noah Cameron, the Royals lost today, 4-3. The Minnesota Twins won on a walk-off Grand Slam by Kody Clemens off Matt Strahm. It is the ninth time this season that the Royals have lost via walk-off, and the second time the bullpen has allowed a walk-off Grand Slam.
Before the bottom of the ninth, the game had been mostly free of drama, thanks in large part to Cameron, making his first start since July 19 when the Royals fell to the Padres, 19-2.
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Hey, that begs the question, which is worse? Losing a game like that day, when the Royals never had a chance, or losing a game like today, when the Royals had the Twins down to their last strike three different times? Asking for a friend, obvs.
Back to Cameron. He’s had quite the road trip. His last outing against Detroit, he entered in the second inning and never gave up the ball. While the Royals—get ready for this—lost that day, Cameron grooved to the tune of two hits, three walks, eight strikeouts, and zero runs across seven innings pitched.
Today, he topped that performance. It certainly helped getting ahead of the count so often—in fact, Cameron threw first-pitch strikes to 20 of the 22 batters he faced. When he finally left the game, he had tossed a career-high eight innings while allowing just one hit (a measly single in the seventh) while walking two and striking out seven.
Combine his last two outings, both on the road against divisional foes: 15 innings pitched, three hits, five walks, 15 strikeouts, zero runs.
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The Royals lost both games.
Jac Caglianone started the scoring when he hit one to Mars. Actually, it hit the American flag blowing in right field. Caglianone’s 17th home run of the season, which also scored John Rave, traveled 438 feet while being hit 113.7 MPH.
It sounded divine.
The Royals padded their lead two innings later in the fifth when Carter Jensen scored on a heads-up play. With two outs and Jensen on first, Rave doubled for the second time. Clemens, the right fielder, tried to nab Rave at second, but the ball scooted away. Jensen, whose forward momentum hadn’t ceased, raced home ahead of an off-line throw. 3-0, Royals.
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Really, that was it. Or: it should’ve been it. Cameron cruised while limiting baserunners. The Royals added some runners, but none crossed home. The way Cameron looked on the mound, it didn’t seem to matter.
And it didn’t matter until Cameron left the mound.
Enter: The Kansas City Royals Bullpen. 2026 motto: No Lead is Safe.
Lucas Erceg came in first and retired the first two batters he faced on a strikeout and soft liner. Ho-hum. Then he hit Ryan Jeffers before getting two strikes on Royce Lewis. Lewis, naturally, singled. Josh Bell followed. Again, Erceg had him down to the last strike. Then he threw four straight balls to walk him. Bases loaded.
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Matt Quatraro graced us with his presence then when he walked to the mound to pull Erceg for…wait a minute, that can’t be right…Matt Strahm???
Raise your hand if you knew the Royals were toast at that point. I don’t care who Minnesota had coming up, things were not going to end well for the Royals. Since Kansas City is so far out of it as this ugly downward spiral continues, the whole situation humored me more than anything.
Strahm got Clemens down 0-2 before all but laying it up on a tee.
For the second time in three days, the Twins walked off the Royals. Minnesota improved to 55-55 while this Royals dropped to 46-64.
On to Denver.
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