Royals starter Cole Ragans had an inkling he had a no-hitter going in the fourth inning. Ragans, though, stayed even keeled and took the no-no into the sixth before giving up a two-out hit.
The no-hitter was gone, but Ragans again showed his ace ability again as he struck out a career-high 12, leading the Royals to a series sweep with an 8-3 win against the Tigers on Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium.
“I just tried to keep having a good mix, go at the guys and just trust the guys behind me,” Ragans said.
The Royals defense, however, didn’t have much to do early as Ragans (4-3) fanned seven of the first 10 batters.
“His stuff was good right out of the gate,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “We know how good his changeup is. He was getting swing and miss on the fastball, too. It looked like they had to honor the changeup, and so he got them in between, ringing up a lot of strikeouts early and his command was pretty good.”
Ragans did have three walks but none scored as he pitched six scoreless innings. Ragans said while the no-hitter was in play he tried to take it like any other game.
“Everybody kind of leaves the starter alone regardless of who’s starting,” Ragans said. “It’s the one day out of every five that we work so hard for. So when we’re in the zone, we kind of leave each other alone. We say good job after the innings and stuff like that. but other than that we kind of leave each other alone.”
Ragans’ counterpart Detroit starter Tarik Skubal (6-1) gave up four runs on six this in five innings with six strikeouts and two walks. The Royals led 4-2 entering the bottom of the seventh but broke it open with a four-run inning as Bobby Witt Jr. and Freddy Fermin each had two-run doubles.
The Royals (32-19) have won six in a row while the Tigers (23-26) have lost four straight. The Royals will begin a seven-game road trip Friday against the Rays before heading to Minnesota next week.
“We’re playing well all around,” Ragans said. “The pitching, the hitting. The guys are passing the batons. That was a good pitcher today, and they put quality at-bats together. And when they got their pitch, they hit it where they weren’t.”
