Cole Ragans allows 1 hit, strikes out 12 in Royals' 8
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Cole Ragans allowed one hit in six innings and Freddy Fermin drove in three runs as the Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers 8-3 on Wednesday for a series sweep.
Ragans (4-3) struck out a career-best 12 while holding the Tigers hitless until Riley Greene’s two-out single in the sixth.
“In the fourth inning I kind of had an idea what was going on,” Ragans said of the no-hit bid. “We kept having a good mix and going after guys.”
“I was looking at the pitch count, not the hits,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “In the sixth I started to do the math. When I saw it was no hits, then I’m starting to think how far can we take this.”
Ragans fanned seven of the first ten batters.
“His stuff was great right out of the gate,” Quatraro said. “We know how good (his changeup) is. He’s getting swing-and-miss on the fastball. They had to honor the changeup, so he got them in between, ringing up a lot of strikeouts early.”