Royals launch home run barrage to sink the Pirates

Power and pitching seems like it can be a winning formula.

Baseball is a weird game. The Pittsburgh Pirates rolled into Seattle at the end of last week on something of a hot streak, winners of six in a row. In their first three wins in their streak, they rang up 30 runs against the Mets. In the last three games of their streak, against the Cardinals, they did not allow a single run.

Then, they traveled to Seattle, where they were shut out three consecutive games by the Mariners.

See? Weird.

It was against this backdrop that the Pirates visited Kauffman Stadium on Monday for the first of three games this week before the All-Star Break. Aside from one pitch to Tommy Pham, these were the version of the Pirates who stumbled in Seattle. The Royals homered early. They homered often. They recorded an always-welcome victory at The K on the back of a strong outing from Noah Cameron and the production of the top of their batting order, rolling to a 9-3 win.

That’s how you’re supposed to play the Pirates at home.

Starter Noah Cameron was fantastic on Monday. Fantastic.

He had pitched into the seventh inning in each of his first five major league starts. Against the Pirates was the first time he completed the seventh inning. For good measure, the 109 pitches Cameron threw was also the most he had delivered this year.

All of those pitches were sharp. In a lineup that was stacked entirely with right-handed batters, Cameron worked four-seam, change and cutter for the most part. He dumped a couple of curves and sliders to keep the opposition on their toes, but it was that changeup that did the most damage.

Cameron got eight whiffs on 14 swings on his cambio. This was the first changeup he delivered on the night, on a 3-2 pitch to Andrew McCutchen.

A bit elevated, but he pulled the string. Cameron generally has a difference of about 11 mph between his four-seamer and his change. Mix speeds like that and you can get away with a pitch that’s not especially well located. Right-handers are hitting .143 against the Cameron change this season. All of the hits he’s allowed on the pitch have been singles. Yep…it’s a good one.

I noted above that the change was Cameron’s best pitch of the night. My thinking behind that statement was the fact that he got those whiffs while making it his primary secondary pitch, if you will. But let us not sleep on his curve. This is the chart where he threw all 12 of his curves on Monday. Pittsburgh batters swung at six of them. They missed five.

That chart is hilarious. I went to make a GIF of the pitch and realized they all looked the same.

I love this angle of him punishing Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Just a great view of a guy going early and fishing for something that’s not there.

Cameron is throwing his curve 18 percent of the time to right-handed batters and they’re hitting a scant .091 against the pitch. It’s generally not a pitch that he will get his highest percentage of whiffs on, but damn if it wasn’t fooling Pirates hitters. If the Cameron curveball is going to do that, he’s going to win games…If the offense can get him some runs.

The pitch GIF’d above was the completion of the first time through the order for Cameron. The next batter was Pham. He clubbed what I would consider the only mistake the lefty made on the night, a 3-2 cutter in a very inviting spot. Pham muscled up and got it over the fence.

That broke Pittsburgh’s 30-inning scoreless streak and gave them a very temporary 2-1 lead.

In the next inning, Cameron allowed a leadoff single to Bryan Reynolds and then set down the next 11 batters in a row, the only baserunner coming on an error on Vinnie Pasquantino. And we’re not going to griped about that error because Pasquantino made two really nice defensive plays, including starting (and finishing) a 3-6-3 double play.

As an unabashed fan of Game Score, I cannot help but be smitten by the numbers Cameron has posted in his starts. He finished Monday’s start with a Game Score of 69, the fourth time he’s done that this year. He’s also posted a 68 and a 65.

Cameron has made a handful of strong starts since his debut. It’s silly how consistent he’s been. Monday’s one was the best of the bunch.

In Cameron’s 10 starts prior to Monday, his offense had backed him with just 2.3 runs per game. The phrase “backed him” is doing a lot of work there. The bats haven’t consistently shown up this season. They’re really in cold storage when Cameron toes the slab.

It took the Royals all of three innings to top that average runs per game mark. They basically put on a belated Independence Day fireworks show with four, count them, four home runs.

Vinnie Pasquantino, fresh off scorching the Diamondbacks over the weekend, started things off by going deep in the first. He was followed a few innings later by Bobby Witt Jr. Salvador Perez blasted one in the next frame before Nick Loftin (!!!) polished things off with an eighth inning bomb. It was the 43rd time in Kauffman Stadium history that the Royals clubbed four home runs in a game. Hell, it was the first time this season they hit more than one home run in a game at home. About time, fellas.

They even had an inning where they moved the line. In the third, the Royals strung together three singles—the last of which from Maikel Garcia drove home the tying run—and a run-scoring double courtesy of Salvador Perez. Mark Canha hit into a fielder’s choice to drive in the third run of the frame.

The Royals worked Pirates starter Andrew Heaney for 76 pitches through three innings. He did not come out for the fourth.

If the Royals are hitting four home runs in a game, it’s always difficult to pick your favorite. It seems so unfair. My rule of thumb on home runs at Kauffman is this: My favorites go…into the fountains. Naturally. If that’s not happening—and Salvy’s would’ve splashed but he pulled it just a bit too far to the left—I’ll default to a hitter who launches one to the opposite field. Like this:

This was just the third opposite field out of the park home run Witt has hit at Kauffman. Fun fact! The other two came in the same game back in 2024 against the Astros.

Here’s where Witt has deposited his 46 Kauffman Stadium home runs.

The one from Monday is on top of the three in the 387. The other two to the right of that came in that game last season.

It’s not easy to go to the opposite field at The K.

The holiday weekend meant an opportunity to head west for a few days for some hiking, beers and yes, baseball.

While the Royals were visiting Arizona—and actually playing some good baseball—I decided to take in the epic Chicago White Sox and Colorado Rockies tilt. As someone who has focused on the Royals for the last couple of decades, I cannot seem to escape bad baseball. And the Sox and Rockies were there for me.

It was my first time at Coors Field. If you’ve been, you know it’s a nice place to catch a game. The sightlines are good around the park. There are $3 beers on the rooftop before the game. If you sit down the first base line you can look at the Rockies while baking in the late afternoon sun. I saw Colson Montgomery, in his major league debut, make a fantastic catch that I thought only Bobby Witt Jr. could make. I saw Yanquiel Fernández’s first major league hit. I saw Adrian Houser twirl a legit gem and Antonio Senzatela somehow give up only three runs. I saw a 3-2 game at Coors Field. Go figure.

As I was there for the July 4 game, there were postgame pyrotechnics scheduled. Apparently, when this happens at Coors Field, the left and center field bleachers empty out and those fans are allowed on the field. It’s a lengthy process to get everyone resettled. I figured it was because those fans wouldn’t really be able to see the fireworks. I think that’s partially true. The other part of it is, had anyone remained in those seats, they would’ve been incinerated.

Fire was shooting from the rooftops, from the concourses and throughout the sky. An usher told me before the game that, “(They) do fireworks right.” I do believe he was correct. This was the best ballpark fireworks show I’ve seen.