Cole Ragans had a strong outing, and the bullpen mostly held up, but the Kansas City Royals were unable to produce enough offense as they were defeated 3-2 this afternoon by the Milwaukee Brewers.

Milwaukee drew first blood with their second batter of the game. Jackson Chourio quickly went down 0-2 against Ragans but battled back to 2-2. That’s when Ragans threw a changeup that was begging to be crushed. Chourio obliged him, sending it out to the left-center stands for a solo homer. Isaac Collins doubled down the line two pitches later, but Ragans managed to record the next two outs without further incident.

The Royals answered in the very next frame. Michael Massey socked a deep flyball to right-center that hopped the fence for a double. Two batters later, Cavan Biggio did not wait around, smacking a center-cut first-pitch fastball from Freddy Peralta past a shifted shortstop into left field, scoring Massey. Freddy Fermin flew out to end the inning, but the game was tied at one.

Both pitchers settled in nicely after that. Peralta was untouchable, pitching through the eighth inning without another baserunner after Biggio’s single. That’s 19 straight outs, for those of you keeping score at home. He was pumping gas with his fastball while also making half of Kansas City’s lineup look foolish on breaking balls in the dirt. Ragans was no slouch himself, racking up ten strikeouts through five innings, including a gem of a third inning in which he struck out the side on 14 pitches. He had to work around some traffic and a tight strike zone, however, and departed after five having thrown 97 pitches.

Milwaukee had a golden opportunity to break the stalemate in the seventh. After Hunter Harvey posted a scoreless sixth, Angel Zerpa was the next man up out of the bullpen. He promptly walked Garrett Mitchell, who entered the game with a career 3.6% walk-rate against left-handed pitching. The next batter, Joey Ortiz, got a middle-middle fastball and smashed it the other way for a double that moved Mitchell to third. Zerpa managed to get a groundball from Brice Turang for the first out of the inning, but Matt Quatraro was not about to let Zerpa face the heart of the Brewers order. Out came Lucas Erceg.

Up stepped Chourio to face Erceg. After a couple foul balls, he hit a hard grounder toward third. Jonathan India, playing in, gobbled it up and threw home. Mitchell, running on contact, got caught in a rundown and was tagged for the second out. Now with runners on the corners and two out, Christian Yelich was summoned to pinch hit for Collins. Erceg fell behind 3-1 but came back with a nasty changeup and a hard fastball to send Yelich packing and escape the jam with the game still tied.

When Peralta gave way to Trevor Megill in the ninth, the Royals finally managed to get somebody on base. With one out, India smacked one off Vinny Capra down the third base line, hustling to second and beating the throw from Chourio for a double. With an opportunity to plate the go-ahead run, Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino struck out. Daniel Lynch IV retired the side in the bottom of the frame to send the game to extras.

Thanks to the stupid extra-inning runner rule, the Royals finally managed to plate a second run in the tenth. Tyler Tolbert went out to second base in place of Pasquantino. After Salvador Perez struck out for the first out, Massey went down 0-2. But he got a gift from Brewers reliever Abner Uribe — a hanging slider. He didn’t barrel it, but he did hit it hard down the first base line. Jake Bauers was unable to make the play on it and the ball squirted into foul territory, allowing Tolbert to score easily. Looking for more, Maikel Garcia was summoned to run for Massey. Unfortunately, on his first stolen base attempt of the year, he was gunned down by William Contreras. Kansas City would have to settle for one run.

Unsurprisingly, that wouldn’t be enough. Carlos Estévez was summoned for the save attempt and immediately blew it when Chourio roped a double down the left field line for his third hit of the game. That easily scored the auto runner and put the winning run on third with nobody out. An intentional walk and a couple pitches later, Estévez balked the runner to third. The balk was…let’s say questionable. To add insult to injury, Estévez’s very next pitch was called a ball despite being extremely in the zone. Soon it was bases loaded with nobody out, which is probably preferable to second and third since it gives a force at any base. Sal Frelick lined one to Garcia for the first out. Estévez then threw strike three to the next batter, Jake Bauers, but it was called a ball for some reason. He finished the strikeout two pitches later for the second out. Wanting more drama in this inning, Estévez then got ahead of Capra 0-2 before throwing three straight balls in the left-handed batter’s box to run the count full. Somehow, he manages to complete the high-wire act, getting a popup to end the inning.

The 11th was an anticlimax. The Royals bunted the runner to third to start the inning but ultimately stranded him. The Brewers moved theirs to third with a 4-3 before executing a perfect squeeze bunt to walk it off with a 3-2 win.

The loss drops Kansas City to 2-4. They will get the day off tomorrow before beginning a series against the Baltimore Orioles at Kauffman Stadium on Friday night.

Cole Ragans: 5.0 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 10 K, 1 HR

Freddy Peralta: 8.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 8 K, 0 HR

Michael Massey: 2-4, 2B, R, RBI

Jackson Chourio: 3-5, 2B, HR, R, 2 RBI