Ragans, Witt star in Royals’ winning playoff return

Jeff Passan, ESPNOct 1, 2024, 06:55 PM ET

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BALTIMORE — With six shutout innings and only 80 pitches thrown, Cole Ragans exited the Kansas City Royals‘ first playoff game in nearly a decade with a grimace on his face. His left calf had cramped up, and while he could have returned for the seventh inning of his start against the Baltimore Orioles, he had something else on his mind.

“I plan on having quite a few more starts,” Ragans said.

The Royals tacked three more scoreless innings on top of Ragans’ dominant performance and used a sixth-inning RBI single from Bobby Witt Jr. to secure a 1-0 victory in Game 1 of their wild-card series at Camden Yards in front of 41,506 on Tuesday. In the first playoff game of Witt and Ragans’ careers — and the first for Kansas City since it won the 2015 World Series — the Royals continued their turnaround from a 106-loss team in 2023 to a potentially dangerous postseason out in 2024.

Should the Royals win another game in the three-game series against the higher-seeded Orioles, they will advance to face the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series on Saturday. Ragans said he will be available for his next start, which would likely come Monday in the second game of the division series.

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The Orioles, meanwhile, must take the final two games of the series to avoid a second consecutive postseason disappointment. Baltimore was swept in three games last season by Texas, the eventual World Series champion. To address a lack of pitching exposed in that series, they traded for ace Corbin Burnes, who was almost every bit as good as Ragans on Tuesday.

Over eight innings, Burnes allowed five hits and struck out three. His lone walk led to his only run allowed. Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia took a full-count cutter a few inches off the inside corner and stole second base. With Royals designated hitter Vinnie Pasquantino on deck — he returned Tuesday after missing a month with a broken thumb — the Orioles elected to pitch to Witt. His ground ball through the left side of the infield left the bat at only 88 mph but found a hole, accounting for the game-winning hit.

“I’m letting Corbin Burnes, the way he’s throwing the baseball right there, determine who he wants to go get,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said.

Ragans followed the run with a shutdown inning, his final one in a magnificent performance in which he allowed just four hits, didn’t walk any, struck out eight and threw 60 of 80 pitches for strikes. It was simply a continuation of not just Ragans’ September, in which he posted a 1.08 ERA over four starts, but his first full big league season, in which the 26-year-old left-hander made the AL All-Star team and struck out 223 in 186.1 innings.

“That’s Cole Ragans,” Witt said, “and he just went out there and did what he normally does.”

Sammy Long, Kris Bubic and Lucas Erceg secured the final nine outs to put Kansas City in excellent position. Now the Royals turn to Ragans’ co-ace, Seth Lugo, with an eye on finishing the Orioles in the same way they did in 2014. Baltimore was favored in the AL Championship Series, but Kansas City swept the series in a quartet of close games.

“Any corner we’ve been backed into, we’ve come out on the right side of things,” said right-hander Zach Eflin, Baltimore’s Game 2 starter. “You know, as much as it hurts to lose the first game, we still have two more opportunities to win the series and continue on. There’s nobody hanging their head or anything. We are looking forward to [Wednesday].”

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