By MATT PIKE
Kansas City Royals starter Cole Ragans appeared to be cruising through the first inning, but a two out home run by Ozzie Albies turned the tide and sent the rest of the game downhill for the Royals as the Atlanta Braves shutout Kansas City 6-0 on Opening Night at Truist Park.
After the Royals were retired in order in the top of the inning, Bobby Witt Jr grounding into a double play nullifying Maikel Garcia's leadoff single, and Lane Thomas striking out, Ragans opened the bottom half of the inning with back to back groundouts from Ronald Acuna Jr and reigning National League Rookie of the Year Drake Baldwin. Command struggles overtook Ragans against Albies though, and on a 2-1 count, the Braves second baseman sent the ball 367 feet to left field for the 1-0 lead.
Ragans gave up a single to Matt Olson and walked Austin Riley, but was able to escape the inning without more damage forcing Eli White to groundout for the final out of the inning. In the second inning, Ragans walked Jonah Heim, but struck out all three batters in the inning, not giving up another run until the third inning when Baldwin led off the inning hitting the second home run of the game on a 3-2 count, extending the lead to 2-0.
Struggles continued for Ragans in the fourth inning, walking Heim again with one out. With Heim on, Michael Harris II hit another home run off of the Royals ace, a 372 foot shot to right field, extending the lead to 4-0. Ragans also walked Baldwin in the inning with two outs, but then forced Albies to flyout before being replaced by Bailey Falter in the fifth inning. Falter threw two scoreless innings of relief before the Braves would get on the board again, getting no offensive help behind him as the Royals got just a single from Witt Jr in those two innings.
In the seventh, Olson doubled and Riley singled to put runners on the corners with one out. Falter struck out White, before Mauricio Dubon doubled scoring both Olson and Riley, advancing to third base as the Royals attempted to throw out Riley at home and the third baseman slid around the tag from Salvador Perez. Falter forced Heim to fly out to end the inning, and was replaced by Alex Lange in the eighth inning.
Kansas City again threatened but could not push any runners across in top half of the eighth inning, getting back to back singles from Witt Jr and Thomas with two outs. Perez though grounded out to end the inning. After Lange got a 1-2-3 bottom half, the Royals were retired 1-2-3 in the ninth inning as Vinnie Pasquantino grounded out, pinch hitter Jac Caglianone struck out, and Jonathan India popped out to end the game against reliever Tyler Kinley.
Ragans took the loss giving up four runs on six hits in four innings, striking out five while walking four and giving up three home runs. Falter gave up three runs in three innings of relief on five hits while striking out four. At the plate, the Royals managed just five hits overall, Witt Jr. leading the way going 2-for-4. Garcia was 1-for-3 with a walk, as was Thomas. Thomas also struck out twice.
Kansas City and Atlanta are back in action tomorrow. Michael Wacha is set to make his season debut for the Royals against Reynaldo López for the Braves. First pitch is at 6:15pm, pregame will air at 5:30 on KFEQ (680AM/95.3FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt.