Aces, Three of a Kind

Ragans punches out 10+ in third straight start; Garcia continues pummeling opposing pitchers

Photo courtesy of AP/Phil Long

There is no such thing as a must-win April baseball game. It doesn’t exist.

But Sunday felt close.

Despite taking three of four from the Minnesota Twins to cap off a 5-2 homestand, the Royals offense was scuffling heading into a massive 10-game road trip to take on three incumbent playoff teams: the Guardians, Yankees and Tigers.

Kansas City proceeded to score only three runs Friday and Saturday combined in Cleveland. They committed mistakes on the basepaths and in the field that the ever-fundamental Guardians punish. They sent mop-up relievers to the mound in the eighth inning both nights, waving the white flag in critical divisional games.

Then Cole Ragans took the mound Sunday. He pitched a career-high 7.2 innings, striking out 10 while allowing just two runs, only one of which was earned. His 34 strikeouts now lead MLB after punching out 10 or more in three straight starts.

Ragans is an ace by every definition, and he acted definitively like one in his second start of the season against these Guardians.

To be clear, it wasn’t a swift nor decisive victory. Cleveland drew first blood when Daniel Schneeman barreled an opposite-field double to score Jhonkensky Noel. When Bobby Witt Jr. whipped his relay throw wide to try and cut down Noel at the plate, Schneeman bolted around third to give the Guardians a 2-0 lead — capitalizing on yet another KC error.

From there, however, Ragans took command. The left-hander leaned heavily on his 96 MPH four-seam fastball, changeup and knuckle-curve while the slider took a backseat this time out.

All four offerings returned upper-tier tjStuff+ marks. Each individual pitch resulted in a called strike plus whiff rate of 33% or better, save for the cutter, which he threw just three times as he continues phasing the pitch out of his repertoire. (He threw the cutter once in the fifth inning and twice in the sixth; it may become a third-time-through-the-order weapon to keep hitters off his fastball.)

In total, Ragans threw 89 pitches before being replaced with two outs in the eighth (reportedly due to a hamstring cramp) by Lucas Erceg. Ragans earned 20 whiffs (tied seventh-most in his career) on 49 swings, a 41% whiff rate that represents the fifth-best mark in games he’s started.

Just ahead of it at 42.9%? His last time out against the Twins when he punched out 11 across six innings. And the other 20-whiff start? Also this season, on April 2 in Milwaukee.

A 1.30 FIP actually paints a picture that Ragans is outperforming a still-stellar 2.28 ERA. His only real blemish in his time as a Royal — the walk rate — sits at a career-best 4.3%. Even when hitters are making contact, it’s meek: Ragans’ 86.1 MPH exit velocity and 31.6% hard-hit rate allowed are top 20 marks among pitchers with 25+ batted ball events.

The ace of the staff is sizzling, and it couldn’t come at a better time — save for the postseason, perhaps.

Kansas City, now 8-8, is relying heavily on its pitching staff to keep games tight as the lineup continues to look for a foothold on the young season. The team entered Sunday with bottom-five marks in both OPS (.596) and wRC+ (69).

Worse yet, offseason acquisition Jonathan India’s quad tightened up Saturday, forcing him out of the game and out of the lineup for Sunday’s series finale.

In stepped Maikel Garcia, whom India replaced as the Royals’ everyday leadoff hitter. Garcia struggled mightily in that role in 2024, finishing the season with a .231/.281/.332 slash line for a 69 wRC+. (Yes, that meager wRC+ does equal what KC’s done as a team so far in 2025.)

But the athletic Garcia, who’s bounced from third base to the outfield and back on the dirt at the keystone so far, looks like a new man. He entered Sunday with a 59.5% hard-hit rate, good for 13th in MLB, and a 94.6 MPH average exit velocity, 16th across the league.

And those numbers are only going up.

Garcia went 3-4 in the victory, including the go-ahead, two-run double in the fifth inning that proved to be the difference. That double was smashed 107 MPH to right-center, the second-hardest opposite field contact of Garcia’s career. He also ripped a 106.1 MPH single up the middle to lead off the game and tacked on another knock in the seventh to cap off his day as the spark plug the Royals desperately needed.

Garcia’s now hitting an even .300 with a career-best .500 slug. He’s Kansas City’s best defensive third baseman, a competent defender at second and has looked comfortable in center field when spelling Kyle Isbel.

After essentially being demoted to utility duty, the 25 year old is doing everything in his power to reclaim an everyday role.

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The New York Yankees (8-7) will host Kansas City for three games on the second leg of its road trip in what’s sure to be an emotional affair. These Yankees knocked KC out of the American League Division Series in four games just six months ago.

After opening the season as the talk of baseball around torpedo bats and towering home runs, New York has lost five of its last seven contests, including two of three over the weekend in the Bronx to the visiting Giants. The Yankees will turn to Carlos Carrasco, Max Fried and Clarke Schmidt while they’re reeling a bit, feeling every bit as much pressure as the Royals.

With mild, mid-60s temperatures forecast on Monday and Tuesday at Yankee Stadium, perhaps it’s an opportunity for Kansas City to shake loose of this frigid offensive funk in a friendlier hitting environment.

Ragans answered the call and more on Sunday, but at some point, the bats will need to ring the bell and support a stupendous pitching staff — rather than having their bells rung.

Kansas City at New York

6:05 CT Monday: Seth Lugo (3.24 ERA) vs. Carlos Carrasco (7.71 ERA)

6:05 CT Tuesday: Michael Wacha (4.20 ERA) vs. Max Fried (1.56 ERA)

6:05 CT Wednesday: Kris Bubic (0.96 ERA) vs. Clarke Schmidt (season debut)