Ragans rebounds with 6 scoreless frames, but Royals can't hang on late
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DETROIT -- Royals left-hander Cole Ragans had a one-run lead when he left Tuesday night’s start after throwing six scoreless innings of one-hit baseball at Comerica Park. He’d limited the Tigers to only an infield hit by Matt Vierling in the first inning, but Detroit rallied for two runs in the eighth off reliever Nick Mears for a 2-1 series-opening victory.
The Royals have scored two or fewer runs in six of their last seven games, but managed a pair of wins when starters Kris Bubic and Michael Wacha blanked the White Sox on Friday and Saturday, with seven and eight scoreless innings, respectively.
Kansas City pitchers have almost no margin for error right now.
Ragans was asked about the frustrations he and the other starters could be feeling, but dismissed that, saying, “Ahh, yeah, I mean, we know what we’ve been doing well, and what we haven’t. We’ve been through stretches like this before, and tomorrow’s a new day. That’s the beauty of baseball.”
Ragans, after exiting in the first inning on Wednesday when he took a comebacker off his left hand, pitched with no ill effects. But he couldn’t come away with the win.
“I did some stuff on the hand the day after,” said Ragans, who is 0-3 despite a solid 3.78 ERA. “I played catch every day in between [the] bullpen [session] and got ready for this one.”
Ragans emphasized that he simply “trusted my defense,” which he noted was “unbelievable” behind him. Ragans said that he didn’t shake off catcher Salvador Perez even once, leaning on the experience of the likely future Hall of Famer in calling pitches.
Kansas City came so close to winning this one.
Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. dove to his left to snare a liner by pinch-hitter Colt Keith with a runner on third base for the second out of the eighth inning, momentarily preserving a 1-0 lead.
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“Bobby wows us all the time,” said manager Matt Quatraro, also commenting on an outstanding over-the-shoulder catch Witt made earlier on a popup.
But then everything came apart for the Royals.
Mears threw a wild pitch that Perez blocked off to the right but couldn’t locate. Zach McKinstry, an excellent baserunner who opened the inning with a double, raced home to tie the score.
“It’s plain and simple,” Mears said. “I need to do better.”
Quatraro said, “It was an unfortunate pitch in the dirt for the tying run to score, and then [Dillon] Dingler hit a ball down the left-field line. It’s a big ballpark, and guys score from first here all the time on balls hit like that.”
Dingler lined a ball that third baseman Maikel Garcia went down to field, but couldn’t come up with. It was a real shot and rolled all the way to the left-field corner to score Kevin McGonigle, who had walked before him, with the go-ahead run. There was no throw to the plate.
Lane Thomas hit a leadoff single for the Royals in the top of the ninth before stealing second and moving to third on a grounder to shortstop by Perez. But Vinnie Pasquantino grounded out to second against a pulled-in infield, and Thomas had no chance to score.
Starling Marte flied out to center for the final out against Detroit closer Kenley Jansen, who recorded his 479th career save and surpassed Hall of Famer Lee Smith for third most all-time.
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Ragans got one run in the second, when designated hitter Carter Jensen was safe on a fielder’s choice grounder and Pasquantino scored from third with the bases loaded. He definitely pitched well enough to earn his first win of the young season.
“Both of those [starters] on the mound had very few strikeouts [one for Ragans, two for Framber Valdez], but were very efficient,” Quatraro said. “ ... To throw six scoreless was a really, really productive outing for us.
“I don’t know if it was [Ragans’] best command. He was behind guys. But we got [two] double-play balls behind him. He came in and challenged guys when he needed to. And he has elite stuff in the zone. So, he can get guys out even when he’s behind in the count.”