Royals send out surging Noah Cameron, try to even series with Marlins

As Kansas City's Noah Cameron continues his late-season success, the Royals are trying to play spoiler in the playoff race.

Aiming for their fourth straight victory in a start made by Cameron, the host Royals will look to even a three-game series with the wild-card-contending Miami Marlins on Wednesday night.

Cameron (9-8, 3.98 ERA) was 5-8 with a 5.27 ERA on July 19. In seven starts since, the left-hander is 4-0 with a 1.29 ERA and an 0.72 WHIP.

He has never faced the Marlins.

On Thursday during a 13-2 win at Toronto, Cameron allowed six hits and two walks over six innings, but only a two-run homer, for his fourth quality start during his successful run. Before that home run, by the Blue Jays' George Springer in the sixth inning, Cameron had thrown 19 consecutive scoreless innings.

"A lot of building confidence," he told MLB Network. "Kind of a tough first stretch, first half. ... (Now), it's just let's run with what we're doing. Let's just keep doing what we've been doing. ... Obviously, it's just been going good."

Cameron will try to help the Royals (62-77) bounce back after their seven-game home winning streak ended with a 6-3 series-opening loss to the Marlins on Tuesday. Kansas City has dropped two games in a row after winning 12 of the previous 13.

The Marlins (70-69), trying to find their way into a wild-card position in the National League -- they are three games out of the final spot -- earned a needed victory Tuesday after dropping three of four at Washington.

Just recalled from Triple-A Jacksonville, Graham Pauley had a two-run homer and two-run triple, while Kyle Stowers also went deep and Tyler Phillips yielded one hit over five scoreless innings Tuesday for the Marlins, who will attempt to win back-to-back contests for the first time since a three-game run from Aug. 21-23.

"We're going to need everybody on the roster to be ready to contribute for us to make a push," Marlins manager Clayton McCullough said.

Stowers is batting .367 with four home runs and seven RBIs during his last seven interleague road games.

Wednesday's scheduled Marlins starter, Eury Perez (7-10, 3.44 ERA), will look to rebound after he allowed all five runs, including a three-run homer, in his third and final inning of Miami's 9-2 loss at Washington from Friday. It was the shortest outing of the season for Perez, who also walked four batters.

The right-hander had yielded just one earned run over 18 innings of his previous three starts despite walking 10.

"I think there's only so long in this league you can dance around that number of free passes," McCullough said. "You put yourself in that spot often enough and it's going to come back to bite you."

Perez will face the Royals for the first time in his career. He also will try to contain Kansas City star Bobby Witt Jr., who had a hit with an RBI on Tuesday. Witt is batting .315 with 30 RBIs in 62 home games this season.

--Field Level Media