Cole carves Corbin’s Camden crew, Kansas City captures commencing contest 1-0

A dominant effort from the pitching staff has the Royals on the precipice of the ALDS.

In their first postseason game since winning the World Series in 2015, the Kansas City Royals managed just enough offense in a pitcher’s duel to win the Wild Card opener 1-0 over the Baltimore Orioles.

Corbin Burnes started the game pounding the zone with cutters and the Royals came out swinging, with Michael Massey blooping one the other way for a leadoff single on Burnes’s second pitch. He would be stranded at first, however, as the next three batters were set down in order, including Ramón Urías handling a hot shot off the bat of Salvador Perez to record the last out. Cole Ragans had to work a bit in the bottom of the frame, but he retired the side in order.

The teams traded zeroes for a bit before Baltimore had their first scoring opportunity in the bottom of the third inning. Cedric Mullins led off the frame with a towering flyball off the right field wall and cruised into second base with a double. James McCann then battled Ragans for eight pitches before striking out on a high fastball. Gunnar Henderson and Jordan Westburg both got first pitches that they could handle but couldn’t make anything of them, with Henderson grounding out to first and Westburg flying out to the warning track in left field to strand Mullins at second.

Within an hour, four innings had already been completed as Burnes and Ragans dominated. The two starters combined for 67 strikes on 89 pitches and had allowed just three baserunners. Yuli Gurriel led off the fifth inning with a single to center to snap a streak of 12 straight batters retired by Burnes. But the Royals caught a terrible break when MJ Melendez swung at the first pitch and hit a liner towards first base. Ryan Mountcastle made a diving play to snag it out of the air and the dive took him towards the bag, allowing him to easily double off Gurriel.

In the bottom of the inning, Urías was fooled on a changeup from Ragans and literally threw his bat at it, poking the ball into left center. Melendez moved into the gap to make the play but overran it, helplessly diving back to his right as the ball fell out of reach. Urías cruised into second with a double. Mullins then swung at a first pitch cutter and lined it into center for his second hit of the game, giving Baltimore runners on the corners with one out. Needing a big out, Ragans punched out McCann on three pitches. That brought up Henderson to face Ragans for a third time. Henderson got ahead in the count, but Ragans battled back with fastballs before striking him out on a nasty slider to end the threat.

Kansas City finally had some success against Burnes in the sixth with some smallball. With one out, Maikel Garcia fouled off a few tough borderline pitches from Burnes before working a walk. After nearly being picked off, Garcia took off for second on the next pitch and easily beat the throw from McCann. Massey grounded out 4-3, moving Garcia to third and bringing up Bobby Witt Jr. He did not wait around, whacking a first pitch cutter through the 5-6 hole to give the Royals a 1-0 lead. With Vinnie Pasquantino at the plate, Witt drew a couple pickoff throws from Burnes before attempting to steal. McCann threw a dart to second and Henderson made a great tag, with Witt being called out on a bang-bang play. The Royals challenged and it appeared Witt may have gotten his hand in before the tag, but the call stood and the inning was over.

With a lead in tow, Ragans went into the bottom of the sixth looking for a shutdown inning. And shut down he did, attacking with fastballs at the top of the zone and breaking stuff low to sit down Baltimore’s 2-3-4 hitters in order. After embarrassing Mountcastle with a changeup away, Ragans walked off the mound having thrown six shutout innings on just 80 pitches.

Matt Quatraro elected to turn to the bullpen in the seventh to protect a one-run lead as Ragans reportedly was dealing with left calf cramps. Sam Long was first up in relief. He faced little resistance, coaxing routine flyouts from Adley Rutschman and Colton Cowser before Urías grounded out 6-3 to end the inning.

After a rapid top of the eighth, Kris Bubic was summoned to continue Kansas City’s parade of lefties. He retired the first two batters, flipping the lineup back over to Henderson. Henderson laid off some nasty sliders with two strikes to draw a walk and bring up Westburg. After he swung through a nasty 2-0 changeup, Bubic doubled up on the pitch and it was just a bit up, allowing Westburg to poke it up the middle for a single. With the go-ahead run on base, Quatraro turned to his fireman. Lucas Erceg jogged in from the bullpen to face Anthony Santander. He needed just two pitches to extinguish the fire, with Santander rolling over on a changeup for 6-3 groundout.

Burnes came back out for the Orioles in the top of the ninth. At just 83 pitches, he had a very real chance to throw the first postseason complete game since 2017. Alas, Garcia slapped a first pitch curveball into left field for a leadoff single. Out came Brandon Hyde, unwilling to let his starter face the top of the Royals order for a fourth time. Keegan Akin was summoned to try to keep it a one-run game. He was successful, walking Pasquantino with two outs but striking out Salvador Perez to send the game to the bottom of the ninth with the Royals clinging to a 1-0 lead.

Erceg remained in the game with Baltimore’s 4-5-6 hitters due up. With a right-handed pitcher on the mound for the first time, Mountcastle was pinch-hit for with Ryan O’Hearn. O’Hearn got ahead 3-1 before whiffing on a nasty changeup to run the count full. Erceg threw 99 in right on the edge of the plate. The strike zone had been big all day, but home plate umpire Ryan Additon called it a ball to give O’Hearn first base. That brought Rutschman to the plate to hit from the left side for the first time today. Rutschman got ahead 2-0, prompting a mound visit. Erceg got back in the count after the visit with a couple triple-digit heaters for strikes before sending Rutschman back to the dugout with a low changeup called for strike three. Cowser was next up — he had crushed right-handed pitching all year but could do no damage here, hitting a routine flyout to center. Down to their last out, Baltimore sent in Heston Kjerstad to pinch hit. He quickly went down 0-2 and fought off some pitches, but Erceg punched him out on a changeup to secure the 1-0 victory.

This was the first road postseason shutout in Royals history. It was a dominant effort from Ragans and the bullpen with the Orioles producing a meager .120 xBA as a team. Kansas City will now have two chances to secure a spot in the ALDS. The first of those chances will come tomorrow afternoon with Seth Lugo on the mound in Baltimore.

Cole Ragans: 6.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 0 HR

Corbin Burnes: 8.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 0 HR

Maikel Garcia: 1-2, R, BB, 2 SB

Cedric Mullins: 2-3, 2B