{"id":2403991,"date":"2026-05-06T00:42:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T00:42:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2403991"},"modified":"2026-05-06T00:42:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T00:42:38","slug":"royals-scratch-noah-cameron-due-to-lower-back-tightness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/royals-scratch-noah-cameron-due-to-lower-back-tightness\/","title":{"rendered":"Royals scratch Noah Cameron due to lower back tightness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"\"><!----><!----><\/p>\n<figure\/><!-- WPS-5038 -- removed the script from WPS and added the placeholder for trinity player --><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!----><!-- CONTENT --><!--[--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>The Kansas City Royals announced a pitching change shortly after <a target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kansascity.com\/sports\/mlb\/kansas-city-royals\/article315632418.html\">Monday\u2019s win over the Cleveland Guardians<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!----><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Starter Noah Cameron (2-2, 5.40 ERA) was scratched from the lineup with lower back tightness. Right-hander Stephen Kolek was called up from his rehab assignment in Triple-A Omaha and swapped for righty reliever Mason Black, who was sent to Omaha.<\/p>\n<p><!----><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Kolek, 29, was slated to make his season debut Tuesday opposite Gavin Wiliams (5-1, 2.70), the second pitcher in the Guardians\u2019 rotation.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>He missed most of spring training with a left oblique strain after starting the first game. In four rehab starts, he allowed five earned runs with 14 strikeouts to four walks in 16 1\/3 innings.<\/p>\n<p><!----><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Kolek enters his second season with the Royals. The team traded away beloved catcher Freddy Ferm\u00edn to the San Diego Padres at the trade deadline last season for Kolek and pitcher Ryan Bergert. Last season as a Royal, Kolek garnered a 1-2 record and 1.91 ERA while racking up 21 strikeouts.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst of all, I\u2019m just happy for him that he\u2019s healthy,\u201d manager Matt Quatraro said of Kolek.<\/p>\n<p><!----><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Before the game, Quatraro said he liked Kolek\u2019s efficiency and pitch mix in his rehab assignments.<\/p>\n<p><!----><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe did such a nice job for us last year,\u201d Quatraro continued. \u201cWe know how hard he worked in the offseason to prepare, and &#8230; for him to work his way back and throw the ball really well in Omaha, it\u2019s exciting to see him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>When talking to reporters Tuesday, Cameron said he felt good enough to start, calling his back spasms \u201cvery moderate.\u201d But he decided to sit out and rest with a long season ahead.<\/p>\n<p><!----><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think if it was August, September &#8230; I would be very capable of pitching through it,\u201d Cameron said. \u201cRight now, just trying to be smart and &#8230; see where we are. It\u2019s a lot better. So I\u2019ll be ready kind of whenever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!----><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Cameron last pitched on Thursday, April 30, against the A\u2019s. He allowed five runs (four earned) and two walks with five strikeouts in a 6-3 loss. By Sunday, his back still had \u201ca little bit of tightness\u201d and the team decided to call Kolek up.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>The team hasn\u2019t figured out when Cameron will return, but Quatraro anticipates Cameron missing this one start because of injury. It\u2019s an early challenge for Kansas City\u2019s depth as the team attempts to climb the AL Central standings.<\/p>\n<p><!----><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>KC entered Tuesday\u2019s action 16-19. The Guardians and Tigers sat in first at 18-18.<\/p>\n<p><!----><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s (the depth) going to be challenged again at some point. But the quality of that depth is really important,\u201d Quatraro said.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--]--><!----><!----><!----><!----><\/p>\n<div class=\"zone grid\">\n<div class=\"related-stories story-module\">\n<h5>Related Stories from  Kansas City Star<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"story-module\" wp_automatic_readability=\"31.031026252983\">\n<div class=\"author-card \" wp_automatic_readability=\"10.343675417661\">\n<div class=\"thumb\">\n                <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kansascity.com\/profile\/290970200\/\"><br \/>\n                        <br \/>\n                    <\/a>\n        <\/div>\n<div class=\"article-details\">\n<p>                <a target=\"_blank\" class=\"author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kansascity.com\/profile\/290970200\/\"><br \/>\nPJ Green<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <!-- Added as per FE-855 --><\/p>\n<p>                    <span class=\"credit\">The Kansas City Star<\/span><\/p>\n<p> <!-- Added as per FE-855 --><\/p>\n<p>                     <!-- End of class=\"social-media\" --><\/p><\/div>\n<p>            <span>PJ Green is a breaking news reporter for The Star. He previously was a sports reporter for Fox\u2019s Kansas City affiliate and a news reporter for NBC\u2019s Wichita Falls, Texas affiliate. He studied English with a concentration in journalism and played football at Tusculum University. You can reach him at pgreen@kcstar.com or follow him on Twitter and Bluesky &#8211; @ByPJGreen<\/span>\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.kansascity.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Kansas City Royals announced a pitching change shortly after Monday\u2019s win over the Cleveland Guardians. Starter Noah Cameron (2-2, 5.40 ERA) was scratched from the lineup with lower back tightness. Right-hander Stephen Kolek was called up from his rehab assignment in Triple-A Omaha and swapped for righty reliever Mason Black, who was sent to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2402337,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2403991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Royals-closer-Carlos-Estevez-starts-Triple-A-rehab-Update.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2403991"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2403992,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2403991\/revisions\/2403992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2402337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2403991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2403991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2403991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}