Noah Cameron will take the ball Wednesday night for the Kansas City Royals as they try to even their three-game series with the Miami Marlins. The right-hander has turned himself into the Royals’ most reliable starter down the stretch, and the matchup arrives with both teams needing a result for different reasons.
Cameron is 9-8 with a 3.98 ERA, but that season line hides how sharply his work has changed since July 19, when he was 5-8 with a 5.27 ERA. Since then, he has gone 4-0 with a 1.29 ERA and a 0.72 WHIP in seven starts, with four quality starts in that stretch. He allowed six hits and two walks over six innings in a 13-2 win at Toronto on Thursday, and he had run off 19 consecutive scoreless innings before George Springer broke through with a two-run homer in the sixth.
That run has given the Royals a clear edge on the mound even as the club has stumbled a little. They lost 6-3 to the Marlins on Tuesday in the opener, ending a seven-game home winning streak and leaving them with two straight losses after winning 12 of their previous 13 games. Cameron said his recent turnaround has been about confidence, after a tough first half that forced him to reset and keep going with what is working now.
The Marlins, meanwhile, arrived at 70-69 and three games out of the final National League wild-card spot, so every night carries extra weight for them. Graham Pauley powered Tuesday’s win with a two-run homer and a two-run triple, Kyle Stowers also went deep, and Tyler Phillips held Kansas City to one hit over five scoreless innings. Miami has not won back-to-back games since a three-game run from Aug. 21-23, which gives Wednesday’s game a different kind of edge: the Royals are trying to stop the slide, while the Marlins are trying to keep the chase alive.
Eury Perez is scheduled to start for the Marlins after a rough outing Friday, when he allowed all five runs and a three-run homer in his third and final inning of a 9-2 loss at Washington, his shortest start of the season. He had been steadier before that, allowing one earned run over 18 innings in his previous three starts despite walking 10, and he will face the Royals for the first time in his career. Bobby Witt Jr. had a hit with an RBI on Tuesday and is batting.315 with 30 RBIs in 62 home games, giving Kansas City another reason to believe it can still answer back before the series is done.
