Royals fall to Atlanta, 6-0
This was probably not the best ball the Royals will play this year.
Maybe if Q hadn’t been shaking hands before the game, the Royals would have played better. | Getty Images The bad news? The Royals had a really rough game at the plate and on the mound.
The good news? There are 161 more of these, and the Royals will look better in most of them. Cole Ragans led the way to the Royals’ third straight Opening Day loss with him on the mound.
He ended up giving up four runs on six hits in four innings. He walked four and gave up three home runs; he did strike out five. Walks continue to be an issue for him in starts where they show up, not just adding baserunners but really skyrocketing the pitch count.
There was a scare in the first inning where Ragans came down on his lead foot weird. His command seemed to suffer after that, but he had only faced two hitters before that, so it might have been a pure coincidence. Bailey Falter came on in relief and pitched three innings, the first two looked pretty good but he definitely seemed to wear down in the third inning.