Royals pitcher excels in MLB debut, continues team's recent surge

He picked up his first career strikeout in the third, getting Rays center fielder Chandler Simpson to swing on an 84 mph slider to cap the inning.

Cameron recorded his second and third strikeouts of the game in a similar manner, getting left fielder Christopher Morel and third baseman Junior Caminero to swing and miss on a slider in back-to-back at-bats to end the sixth inning.

Cameron retired second baseman Brandon Lowe in the seventh inning before walking catcher Danny Jansen. He allowed the first hit of his MLB career during the next at-bat against first baseman Curtis Mead, who singled to left and advanced Jansen to second base.

With multiple runners on base and Jansen in scoring position, Cameron was pulled from the game as he received a well-deserved standing ovation in the road environment.

Cameron, who grew up around Kansas City and was recalled from Triple-A Omaha prior to the game, finished his remarkable debut outing with 6.1 innings pitched, one hit, zero runs, five walks, three strikeouts and a total of 46 strikes on 79 pitches thrown.

Had he thrown a no-hitter, Cameron would have become the first Royals pitcher to do so since Bret Saberhagen in 1991, per the Associated Press. The fact it was his first big-league start is even more astounding.

As impressive as Cameron was, the Royals had some success on offense as well. First baseman Vinnie Pasquantino hit his fourth homer of the season — a two-run shot off a 96 mph four-seam fastball — to give Kansas City an early 2-0 lead.

Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. had himself a night as he extended his hitting streak to 21 games with a single in the first inning. Appearing in his 500th MLB game, Witt reached 1,000 total bases with a fifth-inning single that drove in second baseman Cavan Biggio to score the third run of the game for Kansas City.

The Royals (16-15) have responded well after an 8-14 start to the season and will go for the three-game sweep of the Rays on Thursday.

If they keep getting pitching like they did on Wednesday night from Cameron and the runs keep flowing in, the Royals could just be getting started as they look to put a difficult start to the season behind them.