By MATT PIKE
The Kansas City Royals saw their modest four game winning streak snapped by the San Diego Padres as St. Joseph’s Noah Cameron struggled with command, and again could not get past the sixth inning in a 5-1 loss at Petco Park.
The Padres struck first off Cameron in the second inning as Jake Cronenworth grounded into a forceout, with Xander Bogaerts being out at second, and beating out the throw at first, scoring Gavin Sheets. The Royals tied up the game in the top of the third inning with Drew Waters singling and coming home in the next at bat when John Rave hit a double into the right field gap. Again though, San Diego took the lead back off Cameron in the bottom half Luis Arraez hitting a single to drive in Martín Maldonado
Cameron exited after 5 1/3 innings, giving up two runs on five hits, striking out two and walking three, throwing 88 pitches, 53 of those for strikes. He was replaced by Taylor Clarke, who finished out the sixth, but in the seventh gave up singles to Bryce Johnson and Jose Iglesias before Fernando Tatis Jr hit a three run home run for the final scores of the night.
Cameron took the loss, falling to 2-3 on the season. At the plate, the Royals managed just four hits against the Padres, with Rave and Waters going 1-for-3 and Bobby Witt Jr and Mark Canha going 1-for-4.
Kansas City and San Diego wrap up their series tomorrow. Seth Lugo (4-5, 3.05 ERA) takes the mound for the Royals against Randy Vásquez (3-4, 3.70 ERA) for the Padres. First pitch is at 3:10pm, pregame begins at 2:30 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.
