A painful afternoon in Cleveland

The Royals lost on Wednesday afternoon in their series finale against the Cleveland Guardians by a 10-2 scoreline. The temperature was about 20 degrees warmer than the day before but the bats remained frozen and the day quickly turned unpleasant when the Royals lost their starter, Cole Ragans, after just five batters after he took a comebacker to his pitching hand.

Ugh.

Ragans said his start against the Guardians was the best he’s felt on the mound in a long time. For two batters, it sure looked like it.

This is how he opened his afternoon:

On the shortlist of player with an amazing knowledge of the strikezone, Cleveland's Steven Kwan is near the top. The Guardians leadoff hitter chases just around 20 percent of the time and strikes out fewer than 10 percent of the time. Sure, the third Ragans pitch, the slider, was down and out of the zone but probably too close and too early in the game for Kwan to issue an ABS challenge, but those three pitches on the edge are simply excuisit.

The next batter, Angel Martínez also went down looking.

Against the right-handed hitter, Ragans twice went away with the changeup before shifting back to the four-seam. One fastball up, one fastball down and two outs in the inning.

Up next, José Ramírez, who, with one swing, basically ended Ragans’ day.

That was a 92 mph line drive that hit Ragans right below the thumb on his left hand. After the game the Royals said Ragans suffered a hand contusion. The good news was that nothing was broken.

The bad news was this was how the battle with the next hitter, David Fry, unfolded.

Apart from the first offering that was a borderline call that didn't go his way, Ragans completely lost the feel for his pitches. Also, the Ragans' fastball that was topping at 97 mph for the first two batters was not coming in around 93 mph.

Rookie Chase DeLauter was next. And then it was over.

The second pitch was very much a get-me-over fastball. It got over. Not only over the plate, but over the center fielder Lane Thomas and to the wall for a two-out, two-run double.

On the Royals.tv broadcast, Ryan Lefebvre was effusive in his praise for the approach of DeLauter. I found myself nodding in agreement. I’m not going to sit here and pretend I know much about hitting a baseball (other than it’s incredibly difficult!), but I think sometimes we get a bit lost thinking about hitters counts and such. What I mean is, in a situation where Ragans is scuffling after getting hit on his pitching hand, DeLauter is betting on getting a grooved pitch. Does it make sense for him to swing away? I think it does, but his zone for that specific pitch has to be extremely narrow. It's basically right where DeLauter would set the ball if it were on a hitting tee. Otherwise, it’s a take. Even if it’s in the true strike zone. In this instance, DeLauter got a fat, middle-middle fastball a couple ticks off Ragans’ maximum velocity. He was looking fastball. He was looking up and middle. The pitch was just a little bit away and DeLauter was a touch behind, but has such a short, compact swing that he was able to barrel and loft it to the left of center.

And that was the ballgame.

Just a bummer of an outcome for Ragans and the Royals. The lefty is a key member of this staff with so much potential, yet always with a concern for injury. He missed a tremendous chuck of the season last year with a rotator cuff strain which is always concerning. He was shaky on Opening Day, but looked right in his home debut a week later. On Wednesday afternoon in Cleveland, it sure looked like we were going to get a good look at prime Ragans.

The silver lining—if there is one to be found—is that this shouldn't be an injury that lingers. Nor should it impact mechanics or anything else that could lead to further issues. It's a comebacker that caught him in the wrong spot. As long as it doesn't swell up or a scan reveals something more, I would imagine he would be ready to take the ball the next time his turn comes around in the Royals rotation. That's good, because the Royals need their ace.

No disrespect to Luinder Avila who is a promising young pitcher, but when you only get Ragans for five batters (and when he’s physically compromised when facing two of them), you’ve been cheated out of what could’ve been an enjoyable baseball watching afternoon.

From Anne Rogers postgame write-up:

“He was numb, and we were thinking that the feeling would come back,” Quatraro said. “He said he didn’t have much pain, and then [the numbness] didn’t go away. Obviously, there was the walk, then the double, and then at that point, he’s shaking his hand after every pitch. So obviously, going to be as cautious as I can with him in that situation.”.

As Ragans entered the dugout, he chucked his glove at the bench, saying everything about how frustrating the first inning was Wednesday.

“One of those things where it’s probably the right thing to do,” Ragans said of exiting. “But I think all of us as competitors, we want to play every chance we get. Obviously aggravating for me, just because I felt so good prior to that, and then something like that happens.”

It was just the start of what would turn into a frustrating and unsatisfying afternoon. The Guardians tacked on another double in the first and then Ramíez doubled in yet another run in the second. An early 4-0 deficit and the Royals bats, 24 hours after being shut down on one hit, were still barely stirring.

As I did on Tuesday, I’ll post this up again. Bobby Witt Jr. is hitting the snot out of the baseball.

He finally collected an extra base hit! That's something, I suppose. Overall, the Royals managed just five hard-hit (exit velocity greater than 95 mph) balls on the afternoon. Woof. Even when a team is struggling to get anything going offensively, just five hard-hit baseballs is a terribly low number. And I dropped three of them in the chart above. Carter Jensen and Starling Marte had the other two.

After the Ragans' exit, the bullpen held things together. Mostly. Avila gave up just that one run in his three innings of work. Alex Lange picked him up for 2.1 innings, also allowing one run. Steven Cruz looked sharp in the seventh and gassed in the eighth. That's when the game got out of hand. A Ragans start turned into a de facto bullpen game forcing an already taxed relief corps to try to hold things together while playing from behind. Not an ideal situation by any means.

Nick Mears and John Schreiber each threw close to 20 pitches the afternoon prior. Daniel Lynch IV offered up 13 in that game. It's possible any one of those relievers could've entered on Wednesday, but the Royals are in a stretch where they're playing 12 games in 12 days. They have four to go. Quatraro is not only managing for this game, but he has to keep an eye on the calendar as well. His other options were Matt Strahm and Lucas Erceg. Obviously, had the Royals taken a late lead, those two would've been called on. With the Royals trailing and four more gameso on the horizion, the manager tried to squeeze one more inning out of Cruz and it didn't work.

Cruz's eighth went single, single, single, walk, grand slam. A 5-2 game turned into a 10-2 romp. Tyler Tolbert closed things out. He throws a 50 mph slider and got two outs on five pitches. He allowed a single and then rolled up DeLauter on a double play grounder. Tidy.

The Royals are right in the middle of a key stretch of games against their AL Central rivals where they play each team in the division once. It's kind of a weird open to a season this way, but it's one that sets an early marker. The Royals have played the Twins and the Guardians with the White Sox and Tigers upcoming in the next two series covering seven games. Currently, the Royals are 3-3 against the division. Good but far from great.

Up next

The Royals return home for a four-game homestand against the Chicago White Sox. Here are the probables for the series:

Thu, April 9 - LHP Anthony Kay (0-0, 4.00) vs. RHP Seth Lugo (1-0, 1.59) at 6:40 p.m.
Fri, April 10 - RHP Davis Martin (2-0, 2.45) vs. LHP Kris Bubic (1-1, 4.09) at 6:40 p.m.
Sat, April 11 - RHP Erick Fedde (0-2, 4.09) vs. RHP Michael Wacha (1-0, 0.69) at 3:10 p.m.
Sun, April 12 - TBA vs. LHP Noah Cameron (1-0, 1.69) at 1:10 p.m.

Shane Smith had been due to start on Sunday, but the Sox optioned their Opening Day starter to Triple-A on Wednesday. Pitching prospect Tyler Schweitzer had his contract purchased by Chicago and was promoted to the 26-man roster to take Smith's place.