Cole Ragans struck out eight over six scoreless innings in his playoff debut, Bobby Witt Jr. drove in the lone run and the Kansas City Royals blanked the host Baltimore Orioles 1-0 on Tuesday in an American League wild-card series opener. Kansas City, which played its first playoff game since winning the 2015 World Series, can clinch the best-of-three series with a win on Wednesday.
Ragans (1-0) scattered four hits and did not walk a batter. He exited after the sixth inning with cramping in his left calf. Witt, also making his first postseason appearance, drove in Maikel Garcia with a two-out single against Corbin Burnes (0-1) to break a scoreless tie in the sixth inning.
Burnes shined in his Baltimore postseason debut, scattering five hits over eight-plus innings while striking out three. His only walk came with one out in the sixth. Garcia walked, stole second and advanced to third on a groundout before Witt singled through the left side to drive him home.
Tigers 3, Astros 1 Tarik Skubal (1-0) twirled six shutout innings, allowing four hits and striking out six, while the bottom of the order sparked an early rally that carried visiting Detroit over Houston in Game 1 of an AL wild-card series. Jake Rogers and Trey Sweeney -- batting eighth and ninth, respectively -- and Matt Vierling hit successive RBI singles for the Tigers in the second inning. Framber Valdez (0-1) allowed those three runs and seven hits over 4 1/3 innings for the Astros.
Yordan Alvarez (double), Alex Breg.
