Ragans rips through Red Sox, Royals win 6-1

The Royals have now won four in a row.

In case you hadn’t heard, the Royals are sending four players to the All-Star Game. Tonight, three of those players appeared for Kansas City and the Royals rolled to a relatively easy victory over the Red Sox as they aim to retake playoff position before the All-Star Break. The Royals have one more win and one more loss than the Red Sox which means the Red Sox have the slightly higher winning percentage, but if their wins and losses were completely even the Royals would hold a playoff spot over them for having a 1-0 advantage in head-to-head matchups. Of course, there are two more games left in this series plus a home series later this season.

Cole Ragans, fresh off of being named to his first All-Star Game, set out to show everyone why he deserved the honor even with a higher ERA and more losses than wins on his season. He pitched seven strong innings which included seven more strikeouts, one walk, and only four hits. With two outs in the second, Ragans gave up back-to-back doubles for the Red Sox only extra-base hits and only run of the night. It was also the only time a runner would make it past first base for the remainder of the evening with Ragans on the mound. He was absolutely electric in his final start of the “first half.”

The offense, meanwhile, wasted no time getting things going. Adam Frazier took the lead-off spot again tonight and worked the count even after starting 0-2 before hitting a single into left. Bobby Witt Jr. then hit his own single into left before Vinnie Pasquantino legged out an infield single to load the bases. Salvador Perez knocked Frazier home with a sacrifice fly, but that was all the Royals could get in the first.

So, naturally, they loaded the bases again in the second inning. This time it was an error on an MJ Melendez grounder, a Kyle Isbel walk, another Adam Frazier single to drive in Melendez, and then a Witt hit by pitch. Vinnie notched his league-leading eleventh sacrifice fly and Frazier came home on a Salvy single to left. Sadly, the fun stopped there because third base coach Vance Wilson apparently forgot what stadium they were playing in because he waved Bobby home and he was thrown out by about 20 feet.

The Royals loaded the bases again in the third inning but not until there were already two out and they failed to score. So, naturally, in the fourth inning Witt picked everyone up and reminded people why he was invited to participate in the Home Run Derby with his first career dinger over the Green Monster.

They added their final run in the sixth when MJ Melendez, who loves hitting in Fenway, belted one over the short fence into the bullpens in right.

Don’t look now, but the Royals’ outfield suddenly doesn’t seem like such a glaring weakness. It’s well-established how hot Hunter Renfroe and Kyle Isbel have been, but MJ Melendez has raised his wRC+ by 27 points since he hit that dinger on the last day in Minnesota on May 30. Coming into tonight’s game he has slashed .220/.291/.460/.751 since then which is good for a 106 wRC+. It’s not amazing, but as I’ve argued so often this year, the Royals just needed to upgrade some spots from abysmal to average in order to let the great players shine and that’s just what has happened in left field, sans a trade.

After Ragans’ dominant performance, Chris Stratton was tasked with getting the team through the eighth. At first, it seemed like it would be one of his bad outings as he gave up a leadoff single and then a walk. Sam Long began warming in the bullpen and Royals fans held their collective breath as they hoped he could be ready before things spiraled too far out of control. Then, wondrously, Stratton turned it on and struck out each of the next three batters. Nick Anderson pitched a perfect ninth inning to finish it off.

Cole Ragans, by the way, maintained his hold on the second-place position in the American League at 141 strikeouts. Tarik Skubal also pitched tonight and got eight Ks of his own, but that still leaves him one shy of Ragans’ total. He finishes his “first half” with a 6-6 record, 3.16 ERA, 2.67 FIP, and better than 3-1 K-BB ratio. All for half a season of a reliever. That trade alone probably bought JJ Picollo a couple years of job security.

As noted at the start, the Royals are zero games behind the final Wild Card spot but technically not in playoff position because their winning percentage is 1/10 of a percentage point worse than the Red Sox. They’ve got two more games over the Red Sox this weekend. If they win either of them, they will enter the All-Star Break with their own postseason destiny in their hands. The team’s other All-Star starting pitcher will go for KC tomorrow as Seth Lugo takes the mound. The Red Sox will send out Kutter Crawford. Crawford has a sparkling 3.20 ERA, but that’s nothing compared to the league-leading Lugo’s absolutely dazzling 2.21 ERA. The game will start at 3:10 Kansas City time.