ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Noah Cameron just kept going after losing his bid for a no-hitter in the seventh inning.
All the way to the final pitch of the afternoon.
Cameron struck out eight in his first career complete game, leading the Kansas City Royals to a 3-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Sunday. The left-hander threw a career-high 115 pitches, 73 for strikes.
"That's incredible. Incredible feeling," he said, "and glad to get the first one out of the way."
The 27-year-old Cameron retired his first 15 batters before issuing a leadoff walk to Oswald Peraza in the sixth. Peraza advanced on Travis d'Arnaud's groundout before Josh Lowe struck out swinging and Zach Neto bounced to second.
Cameron struck out Mike Trout leading off the seventh, but Vaughn Grissom followed with a bloop single for the Angels' only hit of the day.
"Just kind of kept them off balance all day," he said.
Cameron also flirted with a no-hitter on July 30 at Minnesota. It was broken up by Ryan Jeffers' leadoff single in the seventh, and Cameron departed after eight innings of one-hit ball. The Twins then scored four runs in the ninth for a 4-3 victory.
He carried a no-hitter into the seventh in his major league debut on April 30, 2025, against Tampa Bay. That one was stopped by Curtis Mead's one-out single.
Cameron is 7-8 with a 4.16 ERA in 23 starts and one relief appearance in his second big league season. He was selected by Kansas City in the seventh round of the 2021 amateur draft out of the University of Central Arkansas.
He is in the middle of a strong stretch for Kansas City, recording a 1.19 ERA in 37⅔ innings over his last five outings. He surrendered four runs and six hits in 5⅔ innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers in his previous start last week.
"Pitching is confidence. It's 90% confidence, 10% skill," he said. "Just obviously building confidence over the last few, knowing my stuff's playing. I think the slider kind of helps open everything up. Just filling up the zone."
Cameron was terrific last year, going 9-7 with a 2.99 ERA in 24 starts. He finished fourth in the balloting for AL Rookie of the Year.