Ragans channels adrenaline into Royals' Game 1 shutout

BALTIMORE – Cole Ragans felt the adrenaline surge through him as he stepped on the mound in the bottom of the first inning Tuesday afternoon and glanced around at a nearly full Camden Yards buzzing with excitement for an Orioles offense that was due to bat.

That’s quite a bit of pressure for the Royals lefty making his first career postseason appearance.

Instead of letting the adrenaline rattle him, he let it fuel him. And in the Royals’ first postseason game in nine years, he pitched exactly like an ace.

Ragans tossed six scoreless innings in Kansas City’s 1-0 win over the Orioles on Tuesday in Game 1 of the American League Wild Card Series at Camden Yards, striking out eight batters without a walk.

“Oh yeah, there was adrenaline,” Ragans said with a laugh. “That first inning, man. I felt like I controlled it well. I filled it up, but there was definitely some adrenaline there. It got loud.”

The Royals are one win away from an AL Division Series appearance against the Yankees. In the brief history of the best-of-three Wild Card Series, teams winning Game 1 have gone on to advance 14 out of 16 times. Of the 10 teams to take Game 1 on the road, eight have won the series, including seven via sweep.

• Everything you need to know for Royals-Orioles AL Wild Card Series Game 2

The only blemish on Ragans’ outing was that he had to leave it – after just 80 pitches and six innings, he exited Tuesday with left calf cramps. Neither he nor the Royals believe it will impact Ragans’ future availability. In fact, he brought it up to manager Matt Quatraro and the coaching staff after the sixth inning because he wanted to be available in the coming weeks.

When he felt the cramping on every pitch during his last two batters – Anthony Santander and Ryan Mountcastle in the heart of the O’s lineup – Ragans knew he needed to tell Quatraro, who was fully planning on sending Ragans back out for the seventh and beyond.

“I want to be healthy,” Ragans said. “I plan on having quite a few more starts. So I just didn't want to push it to where it ends up being something more serious than it needs to be.”

Quatraro quickly called to get the Royals’ high-leverage relievers moving in anticipation of protecting a 1-0 lead that Bobby Witt Jr. had just secured with his RBI single in the top of the sixth inning. Lefty Sam Long was up first and worked a scoreless seventh.

Kris Bubic recorded two outs in the eighth before walking Gunnar Henderson and allowing a single to Jordan Westburg at the top of the Orioles’ lineup.

Lucas Erceg entered and completed the four-out save. After walking Ryan O’Hearn and getting behind 2-0 to Adley Rutschman, Erceg was able to reset following a mound visit from catcher Salvador Perez and the Royals infield. The next pitch was an “eff-you fastball,” Erceg said, at 99.6 mph in the zone to get the first strike. Three pitches later, Rutschman struck out looking. Two batters later, Erceg sealed a save and the win by striking out Heston Kjerstad swinging on a 91 mph changeup.

“I don’t know, man, just to be in that situation, feel the energy, feel the culmination of a season-long effort tied into what really matters in this situation is beyond describable,” Erceg said, his voice still shaking from adrenaline postgame.

Game 1 showed exactly why the Royals have made such a big turnaround from their 106-loss 2023 season – and why they can make a deep postseason run.

They have some studs on the mound.

Tuesday was the Royals’ first road postseason shutout in franchise history. Ragans allowed just four hits in his six innings and became just the fifth Royals pitcher with six-plus scoreless innings in a postseason start. The other four are Danny Jackson (Game 5, 1985 ALCS), Bret Saberhagen (Game 7, 1985 World Series), Yordano Ventura (Game 6, 2014 World Series) and Edinson Volquez (Game 1, 2015 ALCS).

Ragans is the only one of that group to have struck out eight batters.

“He proved today that he belongs in an environment like this,” Maikel Garcia said through interpreter Luis Perez.

Burnes and Ragans traded zeroes through five innings Tuesday. In the fifth, Ragans had runners on first and third with one out. He struck out James McCann on three pitches, then had to battle Baltimore’s star shortstop Gunnar Henderson at the top of the lineup.

Ragans leaned on his fastball Tuesday – averaging 95.5 mph with the pitch and maxing out at 98 – and he attacked Henderson in the fifth with more heaters.

The fifth pitch, though, was a slider at the bottom of the zone that Henderson whiffed on for strike three.

“In that spot, I’m trying to get it to the bottom of the zone,” Ragans said. “Don’t hang it. I threw a lot of fastballs today, especially early. So just trying to execute it down and away that time and get weak contact – not necessarily go for the punchie.

“But I got the punchie.”

Ragans let out a roar as he walked off the mound. The crowd had less of a buzz than it did when Ragans first took the mound Tuesday, but Ragans was still feeling the energy.

“You could see the emotion on Cole's face,” Quatraro said. “It gave the dugout a huge boost.”

“That’s Cole Ragans,” added Witt, who knocked in the game’s only run in the top of the sixth. “... It's pretty easy playing defense behind him whenever he's throwing like that. But the whole pitching staff has been great throughout this whole year. We really wouldn't be in this situation without them.

“And as Tommy Pham says, whenever you allow the other team to score zero runs, you have a 99.999% chance to win that game. I like our odds whenever we do that.”