The Kansas City Royals had plenty of baserunners but were completely unable to land a big hit. They wasted a great start by Cole Ragan and lost to the Detroit Tigers 3-1.

The Tigers wasted no time on Ragans. Andy Ibáñez fell behind before taking 98 hits to the elbow. It looked very much like Ibáñez leaned into the pitch, but he was awarded first anyway. Matt Vierling then hit a middle-middle cutter off the wall in left field, scoring Ibáñez from first base. Ragans managed to hit three ground balls in a row to end the inning without further damage, but Detroit led 1-0 before the Royals even picked up a bat.

With one out in the bottom half of the inning, Bobby Witt Jr. walked Casey Mize. With Salvador Perez at bat, he stole second base for his 30th stolen base of the year, becoming the first shortstop in MLB history to record two 30-30 seasons. However, the other three batters in the inning were retired, leaving Witt at second base.

Each team managed exactly one baserunner over the next few innings, including the leadoff man coming on a couple of times, but neither team could sustain a catch as Mize and Ragans bypassed the baserunners without taking any damage. The Royals had something going in the third inning when Kyle Isbel opened the inning with a single. He was promptly knocked out by a double play, but Witt managed a walk and Perez hit a single up the middle to bring Michael Massey through with a couple of runners on base. He managed to get it and hit a ball past the diving Colt Keith to score Witt and tie the game. Hunter Renfroe then hit a ball to center field, but Parker Meadows snagged the ball on the running play at the warning track and picked up extra bases. Kansas City hit four balls over 103 mph in that inning and could only boast one run, but heading into the fourth inning, it was a brand new game.

Kansas City had a great chance to take the lead in the fifth inning. With one out, Pham hit a single up the middle before Mize walked Witt for the third time of the night. That brought in Perez, who allowed a walk after five pitches to load the bases. At that point, AJ Hinch had seen enough and took the ball from Mize. He gave it to Shelby Miller to put out the fire. Miller needed only one pitch and threw a slider that Massey hit right to Keith for a double play to end the inning.

The Royals squandered another scoring opportunity in the seventh inning. Yuli Gurriel worked a walk, Paul DeJong hit a single off Sweeney’s glove in the 5-6 hole, and Isbel worked a four-pitch walk to load the bases with two outs. This messed up the lineup, but Pham hit a routine flyout to end the inning.

Ragans failed to retire the team in order in any of his innings. That sounds bad, but he managed to go seven innings without allowing a run after the first. He had to make the minimum a few times, thanks to a double play in the second and a brilliant throw-and-tag from Freddy Fermin to Massey to snag a potential base stealer in the fifth. Fermin showed what he can do again in the seventh inning, striking out Trey Sweeney, who was trying to get to second base with a ball in the dirt. That gave Ragans another 1-2-3 inning despite a leadoff walk.

The game was tied until the ninth inning. First batter against Lucas Erceg, pinch-hitter Wenceel Pérez hit a pitch to right that I thought bounced off the bat. Thankfully, I was wrong, as the ball bounced off the bullpen fence just feet from the hit, leaving Pérez to settle for a double. Erceg went all out, retiring the next three batters with an impressive strikeout from Sweeney, sending the game into the bottom of the ninth inning. Since the Tigers obviously have the best bullpen in baseball history in 2024, the Royals then went down in the third straight inning, sending the game into overtime.

Erceg stayed in the game when Detroit’s 8-9-1 hitters took their turn. After getting the first batter out, he stopped the Zombie runner from getting to third base. On the very next pitch, Meadows hit a ball into shallow left field, giving the Tigers a 2-1 lead. After needing nine pitches to strike out pinch-hitter Jace Jung, Erceg walked Vierling after four pitches. Riley Greene then hit a liner up the middle that took an odd bounce and got past Witt, scoring Meadows and making the score 3-1. Angel Zerpa took over and managed to end the inning, but Kansas City needed at least two runs to keep the game going.

The Royals had their first baserunner since the sixth inning when 2-3-4 went to bat, an ideal situation for a rally. But they were no match for Jason Foley and went down in order without the runner even advancing past second base to end the game.

The loss drops the Royals’ record to 82-70. They will try to save the series finale tomorrow night.

Cole Ragans: 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 6 K, 0 HR

Casey Mize: 4.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 4 BB, 3 K, 0 HR

Bobby Witt Jr.: 0-2, 3 BB, R

Parker Meadows: 2-4, 2B, R, RBI