Ventura will be first Royals rookie to start in Series

In just three weeks, Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura has experienced one big moment after another.

Ventura weathered an ill-fated home run allowed in a relief appearance in the AL Wild Card Game against Oakland. He started game two of the American League Division Series at Anaheim, Calif. He opened game two of the American League Championship Series at Baltimore.

Wednesday night, he’ll step onto the grandest stage of all, when the 23-year-old becomes the first Royals rookie to start a World Series game at any position when he faces the San Francisco Giants in game two of the Fall Classic.

Royals manager Ned Yost doesn’t think the spotlight will be too big for Ventura, who will start in the 15th World Series game in club history.

“He’s a special kid because as young as he is, and as good as his stuff is, his composure is off the charts,” Yost said before Tuesday night’s opener. “So you combine all those things together, and you’ve got a pretty special guy who is going to step on that mound.”

In contrast to the baby-faced Ventura, the Giants will counter with former Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy, a hired gun acquired from Boston in a July 30 trade. Peavy, 33, was thrust into this role a year ago when Boston acquired him from the Chicago White Sox, and he started the third game of the 2013 World Series at St. Louis for the eventual champions.

“He’ll be excited, I’m sure,” said Peavy, who waited 10 years to pitch in a World Series. “Everybody playing in this game, there is a lot of excitement. We all know how talented he is, and we’ll try to hopefully take advantage of some of the excitement.

“Getting back here is the world. When you win one, as I was so fortunate to be able to last year, you would think that would quench you. It actually made it worse. You want something so bad, you achieve it, and you can’t put into words how bad you want more.”

Ventura, 14-10 over the regular season, bounced back after surrendering a three-run home run by Brandon Moss in the Wild Card Game with solid starts against the Angels (seven innings, one run) and Orioles (5 2/3 innings, four runs).

“For me, my big focus is always to make sure I treat is it as the same game,” Ventura said through his translator, Jeremy Guthrie. “Go out and execute every pitch as I have throughout the season. Remain calm and treat it like any other game.”

Ventura, a native of Samana, Dominican Republic, takes his cues from his idol, fellow Dominican Pedro Martinez, a three-time Cy Young Award winner and key member of the 2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox.

“I speak with him more or less every other day at this point, and Pedro always encourages me to be myself again, and to treat every game just like I always have,” Ventura said. “No game is more important, but to go out there relaxed and do my pitches and be myself.”

Ventura did not play in the August series against the Giants that the Royals swept, but the Giants are acutely aware of his talent. Peavy, who went 1-9 with the Red Sox before resurrecting his season with a 6-4 mark for the Giants, watched Ventura from the Boston dugout.

“We all know how talented he is,” Peavy said. “He’s going to throw balls close to 100 mph with a really good slider. I’m going to exhaust every option to try to find a way to beat Kansas City. It’s going to be really tough. As we know, they can score multiple ways … hitting the ball out of the ballpark … as we all saw this postseason and generating runs.”

In 14 career starts, Peavy is 5-7 with a 4.97 ERA against the Royals, but in seven starts at Kauffman Stadium he is 1-5 with a 6.42 ERA. He concedes the Royals lineup he’ll face tonight isn’t much different from the club he faced while with the White Sox during 2009-13.

“The White Sox didn’t have much success here,” Peavy said, “but this is a different time and a different day. Nobody cares what happens in the regular season, a month or so ago. That stuff’s long gone. We’re all focused on the here and now. But yeah, it’s the same bunch.”

Peavy, in fact, has been receiving suggestions via text message from his former Red Sox teammates on how to beat the Royals.

“A tidbit from Dustin Pedroia talking about positioning of your middle infielders, to prevent them from making the slides they want to take, to my pitching buddies talking about pitches and what to go to, when and where,” Peavy said.

“They know what I’m going through now in trying to put together a game plan and they’re all helping. It means a lot, because there is no better advice than you can get than from your peers who have lived it and played against the same Royals team as well.”

This story was originally published October 21, 2014 at 8:19 PM with the headline "Ventura will be first Royals rookie to start in Series."