Ragans (10-9) took the loss against Houston on Saturday, allowing five runs on four hits and two walks while striking out 10 batters over five-plus innings.
Ragans left his previous start Monday against Cleveland due to calf/hamstring cramping, but he didn't seem to be impacted at all by the issue Saturday. While the left-hander gave up five runs for the first time since late June, only one of the hits against him (a triple) went for extra bases. In fact, at one point early in the contest Ragans struck out eight straight batters, and he didn't allow his first hit until the fourth frame. Ragans' undoing was the sixth inning, when he struggled with his control -- in addition to allowing three hits, he also walked a batter, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch, and he didn't notch any outs before he was pulled. Aside from that frame, Ragans was dominant, and he notched his third double-digit strikeout performance of the season while tallying an impressive 22 whiffs.