How did Rays manage to get no-hit into the 7th inning by Royals rookie?

TAMPA — It was one thing for the Rays to be shackled by Max Fried.The Yankees’ accomplished, two-time All-Star with the $218 million contract on Easter Sunday took a no-hitter against the Rays into the eighth inning — well, actually the sixth, but it’s a long story involving an after-the-fact scoring change — in a shutout loss.But what happened Wednesday was something else.

Noah Cameron, a 25-year-old lefty making his major-league debut after being called up from Triple A, held the Rays hitless into the seventh inning of what ended up a 3-0 loss to the Royals.Cameron, the Royals’ No. 5 prospect, wasn’t necessarily dominant, as he walked five, with another Ray reaching on an error.



But the Rays helped him out, seeing only five pitches in the first inning, six in the fourth and a low total of 54 through five innings. Ideally, you’d want to make a rookie work more.And pitcher Drew Rasmussen, in what has been another occasional issue for the Rays, put them in a first-inning hole by allowing a two-run homer to Vinny Pasquantino on the 10th pitch of the game.

But until Curtis Mead singled with one on and one out in the seventh, Cameron kept the “0′′ in the hits column on the Steinbrenner Field scoreboard.“He mixed pitches well,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “I mean, good for him.

He came out, (his) debut, felt like he overcame some of those walks and made some big pitches when he had to. He had a good breaking ball going. It seemed like he got in a really good rhythm with (catcher Salvador Perez).

“And we just didn’t have an answer for it.”Again.As different as Fried and Cameron are, the common link of being left-handed is a factor.

In that the Rays, who often platoon at a few positions, have a problem hitting lefties.Consider this:Against right-handed pitchers, the Rays have the top batting average in the majors (.269) and are ninth in OPS (.

746).Against lefties, they are 29th in average (.196) and tied for 28th in OPS (.

576).“I think it definitely has felt like we look up in the fourth and fifth inning and we haven’t scored yet,” said Mead, one of the right-handed hitters who plays primarily against lefties. “But I think we’re all trying to put together competitive at bats and make the guys work.

So, it’s been interesting.”Cameron was only the eighth left-handed starter the Rays had faced in their first 30 games. Cash said that lack of opportunity for the righty hitters could be part of the problem.

“I think it’s more of that, getting the right-handed bats (going),” he said. “We’ve got some guys that, with the lack of seeing lefties, not as frequent. It feels like early on this year that we just haven’t seen a ton.

So, the reps and timing probably are not there.“I’d like to think that we can go out and have some better at-bats and take advantage of (Cameron), his walks. But we did not.

He made big pitches once guys got on base.”That only added to the Rays’ frustration, as despite being no-hit they had several chances to score off Cameron.And when they rapped three more hits off the Royals bullpen, they had a long list of missed opportunities to review.

Overall they were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 10 on.The Rays had runners on first and second with one out four times and didn’t get any in. They had eight at-bats with the tying run on base or at the plate and didn’t get any in.

No. 9 hitter Taylor Walls came up with two men on in the fifth, seventh and ninth innings and, you guessed it, didn’t get any in.“You’re in a spot to where a base hit extends the inning, possibly gets the run across, but gets the momentum going and then the order flips over.

So, being down three runs, putting the winning run at the plate is always huge,” Walls said.“I’m just trying to come through in that situation. I don’t feel like I’m necessarily trying to do too much.

I just don’t feel like I’m getting the job done. So, at the end of the day it’s back to the drawing board. Just got to trust the process that I’m doing.

”The Rays (14-16) were shut out for the fourth time in their past 13 games, and all at home, so hold off on that Steinbrenner Field launching pad discussion. It also was the ninth time in 30 games they scored one or no runs.But they did accomplish one thing.

As far back as baseball history goes, there is only one known pitcher who threw a no-hitter in his major-league debut — ”Bumpus” Jones for Cincinnati in 1892. The Rays kept Jones from having to share that claim with Cameron.• • •Sign up for our Sports Today newsletter to get daily updates on the Bucs, Rays, Lightning and college football across Florida.

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