TORONTO -- The Royals needed to snap a three-game skid, and there was a record to be broken Tuesday night, too.

So it was fitting for their ace to take the mound. And Cole Ragans was masterful again.

Ragans struck out nine and allowed just one run across 6 2/3 innings in the Royals’ 4-1 win over the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre on Tuesday, evening the series ahead of Wednesday’s finale and giving the Royals their 18th win this season and 17th in April.

Those 17 wins marked a new franchise record for the month of April -- surpassing the 2003 and 1989 clubs' 16 wins -- and are the most in any month since June 2017 (17-9).

There are many differences between these Royals and last year’s 106-loss team, but here’s another: The 2023 Royals did not win their 17th game until May 29 last year. Their 18th win came on June 4.

“After the year we had last year, putting together a good April is probably going to turn some heads,” said Michael Massey, whose two-run homer in the second inning gave the Royals an early lead. “But we’ve got to keep it going. We’ve got a lot of guys in this clubhouse that have been on winning teams and in the postseason, which is where we’re trying to get. We’re in a good spot, but you don’t get into the playoffs in April.”

Ragans needed just 28 pitches over his first three innings and kept the Blue Jays off-balance all night long. He saw an uptick in fastball velocity, maxing out at 99.6 mph and averaging 97.7 mph while registering seven whiffs on 21 swings. The Blue Jays just weren’t catching up to it, and just when it looked like they would, Ragans tossed in a changeup, or a slider down, or a cutter across.

“He's throwing breaking balls or changeups behind in the count, he's throwing them [for] the first pitch,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “It's tough to do when you're gearing up for 100. Credit to him.”

Ragans’ slider was the best it’s been this year, and the Blue Jays didn’t put any of the 11 they saw in play, whiffing on three of them. His cutter also looked better with more velocity and induced weak contact, which he’s looking to do to increase his efficiency.

“If I’m commanding my fastball to the glove side and taking cutters off that, I think it’s really big,” Ragans said. “It looks like a fastball until it’s not.”

Ragans allowed a hit in the second that was erased by Hunter Renfroe’s outfield assist when Davis Schneider tried stretching a single into a double. The first run Ragans has allowed on the road this year came in the sixth when the Blue Jays strung together three singles.

The only blemish on his line was three walks, and two of them came in the final batters of his outing.

Ragans felt a cramp in his left leg during Ernie Clement’s plate appearance in the seventh, and it persisted through Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s. Ragans’ discomfort after walking Kiner-Falefa caused head athletic trainer Kyle Turner to make a mound visit, although Ragans might have been done at that point anyway at 105 pitches.

“I was thinking about letting him finish the inning, especially with [left-hander Cavan] Biggio coming up,” manager Matt Quatraro said. “Truthfully, I hadn’t quite figured it out yet. I think deep down I probably would have gone to get him regardless.”

Tuesday was the deepest Ragans has gone this year, and he said he didn’t eat much because he was more nervous for this start than usual. But he got treatment, food and fluids postgame and felt better by the time he talked to reporters.

While walking off the mound, Ragans screamed into his glove in frustration. But it was because of the walks and not the injury.

“I’ve gotten those guys out,” Ragans said. “I knew my game plan going into that inning, so I was more mad at myself. I felt like if I executed, I could finish.”

Ragans remained in the dugout to watch the rest of the inning and the eighth, when reliever John Schreiber needed just 16 pitches for four outs and lowered his ERA to 0.63. The Royals picked up insurance runs in the eighth with back-to-back doubles from Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino, while James McArthur, featuring a 96 mph sinker, picked up his seventh save of the year.

“The starting staff’s been doing a great job of keeping us in games and allowing us to break through as an offense,” Massey said. “You’ve got to score one more than the other team, and they’ve been doing a pretty good job of letting us do that.”