Royals pitcher Cole Ragans is fresh off winning the American League Pitcher of the Month award in August, but he had a disastrous sequence on Sunday against the Blue Jays.
Deep into his outing against Toronto, Ragans threw three consecutive wild pitches during an at-bat against Alejandro Kirk, resulting in two runs coming across to score.
Ragans’ first pitch of the at-bat missed extremely high and outside, causing the left-hander to fall to the ground. His second pitch was too high for catcher Salvador Perez to reel in. The third pitch of the at-bat looked much like the first, soaring well over Perez’s head and into the backstop as Ragans once again ended up on the ground.
my goodness three consecutive pitches 😮 pic.twitter.com/8qosgINimm
— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) September 10, 2023
Ragans had tossed the better part of six scoreless innings prior to this bizarre bout of inaccuracy, during which three errant pitches effectively undid all he accomplished with his previous 101.
The 25-year-old was acquired by Kansas City at the trade deadline after having spent the first half of the season in the Rangers’ bullpen.
Sunday was his ninth start of the year and the fourth time he’s gone over 100 pitches this season. He ended the evening with six walks, as his control was lacking throughout the night, though never more than during the three-pitch sequence in the sixth inning.
