Before he began his pregame routine, Cole Ragans took a few minutes just to take everything in. It was his first Opening Day start as a member of the Kansas City Royals and one he won’t soon forget.
Ragans struck out nine — a Royals’ Opening Day record — but it wasn’t enough as the Royals lost 4-1 to the Minnesota Twins on Thursday at Kauffman Stadium.
“Opening Day’s a special day for everyone,” Ragans said. “But like I’ve said all throughout spring, winning that’s the biggest thing. You just got to move on. It’s game one of 162 so you just got to move on. There’s a lot of baseball left.”
Ragans pitched six solid innings giving up two runs on five hits with three walks. He gave up a two-out home run to Royce Lewis in the first and an RBI double to Carlos Correa in the third but that was it as Ragans basically played catch with Salvador Perez.
“I thought we had a pretty good mix on everything,” Ragans said of Perez. “Salvy did great back there. From pitch one we had a really good mix, and it was just trying to keep guys off balance.”
Ragans, who was acquired last June in a trade with Texas, pitched in relief last year on Opening Day with the Rangers and got the win. He wasn’t as fortunate this time around as the Royals’ only run came on a leadoff home run by Makiel Garcia in the bottom of the first.
Ragans, though, showed why many believe he can be an ace.
“His stuff was good,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “He got two outs on three pitches in the first, and their guy put a good swing on the 0-2 fastball for the home run. And Correa is a tough out for a lot of pitchers. So he battled him and got the two-out RBI. He was really good. He gave up a couple runs, but we’ll take that every time out.”
As good as Ragans pitched, Pablo Lopez was as good for the Twins. Lopez fanned seven in seven innings, gave up just four hits and didn’t walk a batter. The Royals trailed 2-1 entering the ninth, but the Twins scored a pair on reliever Chris Stratton, including one on a wild pitch that was ball four.
Perez thought the ball hit the batter, but replays showed it clearly did not and the runner scored from third. Correa followed with an RBI single, and the Royals went quietly in the ninth — putting a damper on a special day.
“The crowd was electric,” Quatraro said. “The fans were into it. It was a good ballgame. You’re just not going to win a ton of games scoring one run. If you’re going to play against good pitching like that, you’re going to have to figure out a way to scratch a couple across.”
