BALTIMORE -- In a duel of aces Tuesday afternoon, Cole Ragans came out on top.

The Royals lefty starter shut the Orioles down for six scoreless innings in Kansas City’s 1-0 Game 1 win in the American League Wild Card Series at Camden Yards.

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.

The only blemish on his outing was that he had to leave it -- after just 80 pitches and six innings, Ragans exited with left calf cramps, which he’s dealt with before this season.

The Royals’ bullpen, though, was lights out for the final three innings. Sam Long pitched a scoreless seventh, and 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.

Making his postseason debut, Ragans lived up to every expectation set on him as the Royals’ young ace. He struck out eight and didn’t walk a batter. He only allowed four hits. He 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.

Ragans dueled with Orioles ace Corbin Burnes, and through five innings, both starters traded zeroes. Ragans had a longer first inning (18) pitches than Burnes (nine), but Ragans settled down despite some hard contact against him. When the Orioles threatened in the fifth with runners on first and third with one out, Ragans struck out James McCann swinging on a curveball and battled Baltimore’s star shortstop Gunnar Henderson before getting him to whiff on a slider at the bottom of the zone.

Ragans let out a roar as he walked off the mound. Shortly after, it was the Royals’ star shortstop who came through in a big moment. After Maikel Garcia walked, stole second and went to third on Michael Massey’s groundout, Bobby Witt Jr. lined an RBI single through the left side of the infield for his first postseason RBI.