KANSAS CITY – After walking a career-high eight batters in New York last weekend and using the word “unacceptable” to describe the performance, Cole Ragans badly needed a bounceback start, and the Royals badly needed one from their ace, too.
They got one Saturday night.
Ragans twirled six innings of one-run ball with 11 strikeouts and no walks, leading the Royals to a 12-1 win over the Angels at Kauffman Stadium and just their second series victory of the year. It was the first time Kansas City won a game this year with Ragans on the mound.
In other words, Saturday’s start was what the Royals expected a lot of in 2026 and finally got: Cole Ragans dominance and a big team win.
“That’s exactly what we believe he can do,” manager Matt Quatraro said.
It was clear early that Ragans was working with good stuff when he struck out the side in the top of the first. All three came on fastballs 98-plus mph, including the 99.2 mph heater Jo Adell swung through to end the frame. That was Ragans’ hardest pitch of the night, but he averaged 96.5 with his fastball, 2.3 mph above what his season average had been so far.
Ragans filled up the zone with a 71% strike percentage and recorded whiffs (47%) and chase (40%). The Angels could not keep up with his fastball, and he was fearless with it, throwing it 51% of the time. Ten of his 11 strikeouts came on the pitch.
“Mechanics have a lot to do with the heater,” Ragans said. “If my mechanics are in line, it’s probably going to be good. Everything else feeds off it. It’s just about commanding the fastball, getting ahead and letting everything else play.”
That was the focus for Ragans between starts this week. While he doesn’t like using it as an excuse, something was off with his mechanics in New York. He was determined to fix it.
Video is his first stop. There are past outings ingrained in Ragans’ mind that he looks back on to remind himself of mechanical cues or thought processes that were there when he was feeling good.
One example: April 30, 2024, in Toronto, when Ragans struck out nine in 6 2/3 innings.
“One of the hardest average velos I’ve had,” Ragans said, referencing the 97.7 mph average fastball velocity that day, the third highest in his career as a starter. “The reason I go back to that is because my mechanics were in a really good spot. I filled up the zone that day.”
Other go-to videos include his 11-strikeout start against the Marlins on June 24, 2024, or his start against the Tigers on May 22, 2024, when he set a career high of 12 strikeouts.
What Ragans is looking for when he goes back to watch those outings starts with his tempo. How is he moving on the mound? Is it too quick? He looks at his front side. He’ll study how he’s using his lower half and whether he’s getting what he likes to call “toey,” a cue that tells him he’s putting the weight in his left leg too much on his toe rather than evenly distributed.
All of these things and more are what Ragans zeros in on when he needs to get back on track.
“Sometimes there’s no difference,” Ragans said. “Or it’s super small. Or it’s a thought process. Basically, I’m just always trying to be smooth until the very last second, and then I can step on it. It’s like: Smooth, smooth, smooth, explode late through the zone.
“I’ll go back and watch video and be like, ‘What was I thinking here?’ Sometimes I’m like, ‘I don’t think I was thinking.’ I just need to get back to not thinking.”
Smooth and easy on the mound and not thinking too much. That’s the recipe for success for Ragans, and he put it all together Saturday. Nothing was too big for him. He worked out of a scoring situation in the second with two strikeouts. He didn’t let a leadoff home run or a two-out double in the fourth affect him.
Ragans got an early lead from an offense that never let up throughout the 12-run outburst.
Ragans finished the sixth inning at 99 pitches (70 strikes), earning him a handshake in the dugout not from Quatraro, but from Salvador Perez.
Nothing better than a job-well-done handshake from the captain.
“That’s the way he is,” said Perez, whose frozen-rope home run put him just 10 behind George Brett’s franchise record of 317. “That’s the way he likes to pitch. He’s going to have ups and downs. But I think he’s going to stay like that, and pitching like that is going to help a lot.”