How Royals starting pitcher Noah Cameron kept his cool in brutal heat and humidity
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Noah Cameron escaped early jam and logged five scoreless innings in 4-1 win.
- Changeup produced key whiffs as heat and humidity lowered pitch velocity.
- Bullpen preserved lead as Royals managed Cameron’s workload amid injuries.
Here’s the summary of what happened within Noah Cameron’s first 10 pitches of Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Guardians at Kauffman Stadium:
Single, hit-by-pitch, single.
And that loaded the bases with no outs in the first inning.
With the “feels-like” temperature in triple-digits, that bases-juiced jam could have rattled Cameron on the mound as he was trying to stay cool ... or so one might think.
“It’s baseball weather,” the 26-year-old St. Joseph native said with a shrug. “It’s kind of what I’ve always had growing up. We all would really be rather hot than cold, anyway.”
Cameron, the bespectacled rookie left-hander, managed his way through the remainder of the first inning and escaped it unscathed. Then he proceeded to put up nothing but zeros through the rest of his five-inning appearance.
“I think we were executing pitches,” he said. “A little hit-by-pitch is never in the plan, but after that you just continue to keep executing and just trying to get out, trying to minimize.
“I think if you even give up one run there it’s OK, but just being able to minimize and get out of that (inning) clean is good.”
Cameron struck out six, earning the win as the Royals beat Cleveland 4-1 to win the first series of their current homestand. He produced 12 whiffs against the Guardians, with his changeup inducing five on 11 swings despite a noticeable drop in velocity.
It was a battle just to keep his hands dry with all the sweat.— Cameron’s changeup averaged 79.7 mph, below his average of 81.1 mph.
“It was good. A little bit slower today, popping out of my hands, slipping out of my hands a little bit,” Cameron said of the breaking pitch. “But it was obviously really good. It was effective: I was able to flip some in some 3-2 counts, get some looks, which always helps and makes it a lot easier when they’re not swinging.
“We’ll just continue working on it and throwing it and having a lot of confidence in it.”
Cameron turned to his changeup after loading the bases, with immediate success. He got his first whiff of the day against Guardians designated hitter David Fry.
Cameron said having an expanded arsenal of pitches helped him settle down after the initial jam.
“It’s everything,” he said of his diverse repertoire. “It makes pitching a lot easier when you can kind of lean on other stuff. If they’re seeing something well, if something’s not coming out right, just leaning on other pitches and continuing to mix — that’s kind of what I like to do. Just mix well and just keep hitters off-balance.”
Cameron’s start came in wake of the Royals’ split doubleheader on Saturday, which included a lot of bullpen usage. Cameron was pulled after 83 pitches Sunday, which Royals manager Matt Quatraro attributed to monitoring Cameron’s volume and having confidence in his relief staff.
Relievers Hunter Harvey, Angel Zerpa, Lucas Erceg and Carlos Estévez all saw action on Sunday
“We felt really good about those four guys that we did end up using,” Quatraro said. “Obviously, the heat (factored) into it.
“Noah’s overall volume of work and how many innings he’s pitched and started in the big leagues is uncharted for him right now, and we’re trying to take care of him.”
Cameron may see longer stints ahead give some recent additions to the Royals’ injured list. Starters Cole Ragans and Michael Lorenzen are already on the IL, and Kris Bubic joined the club Sunday with a left-rotator cuff strain.
More usage would be fine with Cameron, no matter the temperature.
“That’s the goal every single time, just go out and throw nine innings,” he said. “You know that we want to eat innings, save the bullpen. ... We have a ‘next man up’ mentality and we’ll continue to have that mentality the whole year.
“Just stay healthy,” Cameron added. “Pitch well, pitch deep in the games, save the bullpen is what it kind of comes down to.”
This story was originally published July 27, 2025 at 5:21 PM.
