Maximum Ragans

In his best start of the young season, Cole Ragans showed why he's an ace.

This was the good stuff. It was exactly what the Royals needed after dropping the first two games of the road trip to division rival Cleveland Guardians.

Cole Ragans was firing on all cylinders and was outstandingly efficient in his pitches. That allowed him to power through a career-high 7.2 innings to lead his team to victory. It was the third consecutive start for the lefty where he recorded double-digit strikeouts. It was the second consecutive start where he did not walk a batter.

The ace is gonna ace.

The secret to Ragans’ longevity in this outing was keeping his pitch count manageable.

After Ragans took the mound for his second start of the season, I wrote this:

My only wish is that Ragans would put hitters away with a little more urgency. He threw 97 pitches in five innings on Wednesday. I know that because he generates so much swing and miss, his pitch count is going to be elevated earlier in his starts, but I just wish that he didn’t have the kinds of innings like he had in the fourth where he struck out two but also walked a pair in throwing 28 pitches. He then required 23 pitches in the fifth while striking out one and allowing a single. That’s over half of his pitches of the day in just two innings.

In that start, Ragans threw his four-seamer 58 percent of the time, and Brewers hitters, while swinging and missing 13 times on the pitch, also fouled it off 18 times.

This was his pitch chart on four-seam fastballs from that game that were either taken for a strike, fouled off or whiffed on.

On Sunday in Cleveland, Ragans threw his fastball 48 percent of the time. Guardians hitters fouled off that pitch only five times while Ragans generated just eight whiffs on the pitch.

Here’s the chart with the same parameters as above, but for Sunday’s start:

I think the Brewers spoiled some good pitches, especially on the upper reaches of the zone against Ragans two starts ago. This time around, it looks to me like Ragans was a little more selective with the fastball, instead leaning more on his changeup—which continues to be absolutely devastating—and his knuckle curve. Make no mistake, that Ragans fastball was absolutely humming with energy on Sunday. So overpowering.

The Ragans curve is a pitch that, when in the zone, is almost impossible for the opposing batter to square up. He was keeping it down on Sunday.

It also helps that the Guardians were up there to take their hacks. That’s probably a decent gameplan (at least as far as these things go) against Ragans as you don’t want to fall behind in the count. Go up and rip at the first pitch you see in the zone.

Ragans needed just six pitches to get three outs in the first. José Ramírez swung at the first pitch he saw and put it in play. Carlos Santana jumped ahead 2-0 before he ripped a center-cut fourseamer off the wall in left. He hit it so hard (111 mph) but MJ Melendez played the carom perfectly to pick up the easiest assist he’ll ever have as Santana was thrown out by miles at second.

The second inning was a bit of a disaster. Not for Ragans. More for Bobby Witt Jr. playing defense. The first batter, Jhonkensy Noel swung at the first pitch he saw and singled on a smash up the middle. It looked like Witt could’ve gloved it, but the Statcast radar had the hit at 117 mph off the bat. It did not look like Noel hit it that hard. Fine.

Ragans recovered to get Gabriel Arias and Angel Martínez swinging at fastballs. Those two outs took a total of nine pitches.

Then, trouble.

Daniel Schneemann came up to the plate and fouled off three Ragans’ offerings and worked the count to 2-2.

On the sixth pitch, he laced a double to left-center that split the outfielders. Noel was motoring with two outs, hit third and powered onward. Witt had a better than solid chance to gun down the man they call Big Christmas at home. Yet he yanked his throw well up the third base line. The ball kicked around the backstop and Schneemann had a Little League home run.

Two things from this at bat: One, I think if pitch four, that slider off the plate, had been down a little more, Schneemann swings and misses and the Royals are out of the inning. Two, I do think Witt had a chance to get Noel at the plate to end the inning.

Ragans recovered to strike out the next batter on four pitches, so it’s not like his pitch count was drastically elevated due to that at bat. He needed 20 innings to get through that inning.

In the third, Ragans needed just five pitches as the Guardians swung at, and made contact, on three pitches. It was about as tidy an inning you will see.

Through three innings, Ragans was at 31 pitches.

Ragans found himself squeezed in the fourth, but still struck out the side. This was the confrontation between Ragans and the first batter of the inning, Santana:

Any of the first three pitches could’ve been called a strike. After that, Ragans went to work pounding the zone before finishing Santana with some high cheese.

Ragans then got Noel on three pitches and Arias on five to wrap the inning. Fifteen pitches total and the lefty was at 46 through four innings. A wholly manageable total.

The fifth saw the inning begin with another extended battle. This time, it was against Angel Martínez. Like the battle an inning earlier against Santana, Ragans fell behind early. Unlike against Santana, Ragans was spraying his pitches.

Martínez expanded the zone a bit once the count went 2-1, but Ragans absolutely shredded him with a perfectly placed change to record the strikeout.

Besides those three fouls from Martínez, there wasn’t another foul in the inning as Ragans navigated the next three batters on 10 pitches. One of those hitters, Austin Hedges, pulled a tasty four-seamer into left for a single.

The Guardians lineup flipped over in the bottom of the sixth. This would be the third time Ragans saw Steven Kwan, Ramírez and Santana. Kwan and Santana both saw just two pitches. Kwan grounded out and Santana popped out.

Ramírez jumped ahead in the count 3-1. From there, Ragans went changeup/changeup to get a whiff and a weak ground ball.

I thought this was a pure pitching masterclass. Ragans was on the edge with a fastball and change to start. He didn’t get the call, nor did Ramírez offer. Fine. Ragans pumped in a cutter for a strike. From there, Ragans went full attack mode. In this case, that’s his changeup. Three consecutive cambios, all down in the zone, all tempting. Especially the last one on 3-2. Too close to take, Ramírez somehow got under it and skied a popout to third.

Ragans was at 73 pitches through six innings.

These individual duals are fascinating to me and help underscore exactly how close to the zone Ragans was for much of the afternoon. There were a few misses. That’s going to happen. However, when a pitcher is going to be consistently on the edges of the zone like we can see Ragans was in these individual batters, he’s going to be successful.

It sure looked like Ragans was in challenge mode in the seventh.

Center-cut fastballs in the mid-90s. Knuckle curves down. And a couple of changeups for a change of pace. Here’s my stuff…hit it if you can.

All three batters put the ball in play that inning. All three went for outs.

Ragans final pitch of that frame was at 98 mph, a heater that Martínez couldn’t get around on and flared to the opposite field for a harmless fly out.

Ragans had never fired a pitch in the eighth inning. He did on Sunday. At 81 pitches through seven, manager Matt Quatraro let him back out for the eighth. Ragans struck out Schneemann, his 10th punchout of the game, and retired Hedges. Rather than let Ragans face the switch hitting Brayan Rocchio, Quatraro went to his bullpen.

The final line for Ragans:
7.2 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 10 K

He threw 89 pitches, 64 of them for strikes. It was a thrilling afternoon of pitching, a performance where everything came together. Cole Ragans is a stud.