The Kansas City Royals avoided a three-game sweep by the Reds with a 3-2 victory.
For the Reds, it was their ninth one-run loss against five wins. And one-run games are something at which the Royals are proficient, 11-7 after Wednesday.
The loss ended the Reds’ streak of six straight wins in Kauffman Stadium and dropped them 7½ games behind the first place Chicago Cubs.
The Reds ran into a 25-year-old bespectacled left-handed rookie named Noah Cameron, a breaking ball specialist making his fourth major league start.
In his first three starts he gave up only two runs, both solo home runs.
After hitting three monster mash home run Tuesday, one by Tyler Stephenson and two by Elly De La Cruz, the Reds never came close to clearing the walls on this night.
Cameron pitched 6⅓ innings and gave up one run and six hits.
“The Cameron kid is pretty polished,” said Reds manager Tito Francona. “First time through, a lot of times guys say he established his fastball. He really established his off-speed and the second time through threw his fastball a little bit more. He threw four different pitches and we had to respect all of them.”
Hunter Greene made his second start after coming off the injured list and was erratic all evening. He held the Royals to two runs on seven hits but needed 88 pitches to cover five innings.
“They made him work,” said Francona. “I don’t think he had his best command. It is a little bit expected on his second start back. With his next start we’ll take the gloves off and let him be who he is and not worry about the pitch count so much.”
Greene agreed.
“Just one of those days that I had to grind a little bit more,” he said. “If you can be successful on days like today, I take a lot more pride in that than days you feel perfect.
“I’m still somewhat trying to get my bearings,” he added. “Today’s start was better than the last one because I went an extra inning. There’s still a lot of work to do to get back to what I usually do.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
It was 0-0 through three innings and the Royals then scored in a weird way.
With one out, Maikel Garcia extended his hitting streak to 13 games by lining one off Greene’s right calf for a single.
Drew Waters hit a hard ground ball toward second. Matt McLain dove and deflected the ball, slowing it down so that Garcia scored all the way from first on an infield hit.
“He dove and didn’t come up with it and it caroms enough that it slows it down into that triangle out there (in the outfield,” said Francona. “Their runner did a very good job and their third base coach did a very good job.”
And the second run was weird, too.
John Rave, hitless in his first eight MLB at bats, led the fifth with a double for his first MLB hit. Bobby Witt Jr., 0 for 9 in the series, lined a run-scoring double just inside the first base bag to make it 2-0.
The Reds finally scored in the sixth after Cameron retired the first two. But he issued his first walk on a 3-and-2 pitch to Austin Hays.
Tyler Stephenson singled for the third straight time and Spencer Steer, who also had three hits, singled home Hays, cutting the Royals’ lead to 2-1.
And then, another weird run, the winning run as it turned out.
The Royals scored a run off rookie Luis Mey in the seventh without a hit. He walked the first two and moved the runners to third and second with a wild pitch.
Witt hit a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1.
“He threw a lot of balls early,” said Francona, referring to the two inning-opening walks by Mey. “To his credit, they had a runner on third and we let him face Vinnie Pasquantino (and Salvador Perez) and he got the ground balls and got out of it. That’s a hard way to pitch and not give up runs.”
The Reds crept to within 3-2 in the eighth on a leadoff double by Elly De La Cruz and a two-out single by Steer. Pinch-hitter Will Benson left the potential tying run on first by popping up on the first pitch.
Matt McLain took a called third strike that he thought was low to open the ninth. Umpire Carlos Torres ejected Nick Martinez for being demonstrative in the dugout.
Francona confronted Torres and he, too, was ejected and said, “I just wanted to know who he threw out. It was a little bit of everything.”
Garrett Hampson grounded out and TJ Friedl, who had two hits to extend his multi-hit games to six straight and seven of nine, struck out.
And that was that.
NEXT GAME
Who: Cincinnati at Chicago Cubs
When: Friday, May 30, 2:20 p.m.
TV: FanDuel Sports
Radio: 1410-AM, 700-AM
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