Royals' Cole Ragans: Struggles in return

Ragans (groin) allowed five runs on five hits and three walks while striking out four over three innings in a no-decision in Game 2 of Thursday's doubleheader versus the Royals.

Ragans squandered a four-run lead in the third inning, and that was enough to end his first start back after missing nearly three weeks with the groin injury. He wasn't very sharp, throwing just 47 of 78 pitches for strikes in his return. The southpaw has gone no more than five innings in any of his last six outings, and he's given up at least four runs in five of them. He's at a 5.18 ERA, 1.29 WHIP and 76:16 K:BB through 48.2 innings over 10 starts this season. Ragans is tentatively projected to make his next start at home in a tough matchup against the Yankees.