Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura drops appeal, starts serving seven-game suspension

Yordano Ventura began serving his seven-game suspension on Thursday, dropping his appeal to Major League Baseball.

That means Ventura’s next start will be in the series opener at Detroit on May 8.

“We only had to find one spot start instead of two,” manager Ned Yost said before the Royals played the Tigers on Thursday at Kauffman Stadium.

That spot start will be Friday’s game against the Tigers, and Chris Young will likely make his first start of the season. The Royals have an off day Monday.

Ventura was one of four Royals suspended after an on-field incident at Chicago on April 23. The fracas started when White Sox hitter Adan Eaton hit a comebacker to Ventura and the players jawed at each other as Eaton ran to first.

The benches emptied. Also suspended were pitcher Edinson Volquez, for five games, and pitcher Kelvin Herrera and outfielder Lorenzo Cain, for two games each.

Volquez dropped his appeal and began serving his suspension on Monday. He’s slated to start against the Tigers on Saturday.

Herrera and Cain have not dropped their appeals.

This story was originally published April 30, 2015 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura drops appeal, starts serving seven-game suspension."