Royals shut out Orioles to take Game 1 of AL Wild Card Series - ESPN

BALTIMORE — With six shutout innings and only 80 pitches thrown, Cole Ragans exited the Kansas City Royals' first playoff game in nearly a decade with a grimace on his face. His left calf had cramped up, and while he could have returned for the seventh inning of his start against the Baltimore Orioles, he had something else on his mind.

«I plan on having quite a few more starts,» Ragans said.

The Royals tacked three more scoreless innings on top of Ragans' dominant performance and used a sixth-inning RBI single from Bobby Witt Jr. to secure a 1-0 victory in Game 1 of their wild-card series at Camden Yards in front of 41,506 on Tuesday. In the first playoff game of Witt and Ragans' careers — and the first for Kansas City since it won the 2015 World Series — the Royals continued their turnaround from a 106-loss team in 2023 to a potentially dangerous postseason out in 2024.

Should the Royals win another game in the three-game series against the higher-seeded Orioles, they will advance to face the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series on Saturday. Ragans said he will be available for his next start, which would likely come Monday in the second game of the division series.

The Orioles, meanwhile, must take the final two games of the series to avoid a second consecutive postseason disappointment. Baltimore was swept in three games last season by Texas, the eventual World Series champion. To address a lack of pitching exposed in that series, they traded for ace Corbin Burnes, who was almost every bit as good as Ragans on Tuesday.

Over eight innings, Burnes allowed five hits and struck out three. His lone walk led to his only run allowed. Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia took a full-count cutter a few inches