It’s a heavyweight pitching matchup in Kansas City as the Orioles’ and Royals’ respective aces do battle for the second time this year.
The Orioles’ opening game in Kansas City last night was a total clunker. Dean Kremer started strong but faded late, the Orioles’ middle relief crew poured gasoline on the fire, and the O’s offense hit into some bad luck but also squandered scoring opportunities.
Fortunately, momentum is your next day’s starting pitcher, and for the Orioles that starting pitcher is Corbin Burnes. Four starts into his Orioles career, the club’s new ace has delivered exactly what they acquired him for, posting a 2.28 ERA and a sub-1.00 WHIP. The Birds are a perfect 4-0 in his starts.
Unfortunately for the Orioles, the opposing starter is pretty darn good, too. Cole Ragans emerged as an ace for Kansas City almost immediately after they acquired him from Texas last year, and so far in 2024 he’s picked up where he left off. Three of his four outings have been quality starts, including two games in which he worked at least six scoreless innings and struck out at least seven. Bizarrely, though, Ragans doesn’t yet have a win to his name, as the Royals have scored only nine runs total in the four games in which he’s pitched.
This is already the second time this year that Burnes and Ragans have locked horns. They faced each other in the series finale in Baltimore on April 3, a game that was delayed five hours by rain. Ragans had the clear upper hand in that matchup, limiting the O’s to just one hit in 6.1 scoreless innings while Burnes was tagged for nine hits in 5.2 laborious frames. But the Birds ended up winning a walkoff with four runs in the final two frames.
With the southpaw Ragans on the hill, all four of the Orioles’ usual bench players — Austin Hays, James McCann, Jorge Mateo, and Ramón Urías — are in the starting lineup, at the expense of lefty swingers Colton Cowser, Cedric Mullins, Ryan O’Hearn, and the struggling Jackson Holliday. It’s the first start in seven days for Mateo and the first in 11 days for Urías. That’s about as close as this team can get to a punt lineup, but it’s still no pushover.
Orioles lineup:
SS Gunnar Henderson
DH Adley Rutschman
1B Ryan Mountcastle
RF Anthony Santander
2B Jordan Westburg
LF Austin Hays
3B Ramón Urías
C James McCann
CF Jorge Mateo
RHP Corbin Burnes
Royals lineup:
3B Maikel Garcia
SS Bobby Witt Jr.
1B Vinnie Pasquantino
C Salvador Perez
LF MJ Melendez
DH Nelson Velazquez
2B Michael Massey
RF Hunter Renfroe
CF Kyle Isbel
LHP Cole Ragans