Game 3 pitchers can bring the heat

When the Royals settle into Citi Field for Game 3 of the World Series on Friday night, one of the first questions in the dugout will be this:

Where do they display the pitch speed on the scoreboard?

And for good reason. Friday’s starting pitchers have each topped 100 mph this season. The Royals’ Yordano Ventura is averaging 97.03 mph on his four-seam fastball in October; the Mets’ Noah Syndergaard is averaging 98.04 mph, according to Pitch Info.

But while velocity data is of upmost importance for the managers, coaches, fielders and hitters to do their jobs, Royals manager Ned Yost says he doesn’t think the pitchers are “competing to see who can throw the hardest.”

They’ve got other issues. For Syndergaard, a 6-foot-6, 23-year-old rookie making his World Series debut, he must figure out how to stop the Royals’ ambush offensive attack, led by Alcides Escobar. He’s six hits shy of George Brett’s career playoff hit record and is 11 for 22 when leading off an inning this postseason.

“I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I’ll be able to break out tomorrow night,” Syndergaard said Thursday. “I’m looking forward to it.”

For Ventura, it will be harnessing his emotions on the road, where he’s making his World Series debut away from Kauffman Stadium.

“It pretty much is in my blood that when I strike out a guy in a big situation, I’m going to be myself and let it all out there,” Ventura said. “But I have changed a lot. Some of the hitters sometimes can take me the wrong way and say something to me, but I just ignore it now.”

On the road this postseason, Ventura struck out eight in five innings of ALDS Game 4 at Houston, allowing three runs off four hits and three walks. He left with the Royals trailing 3-2 in a game that they stormed back to win 9-6.

But overall, Ventura is 0-1 with a 5.09 ERA in four starts this postseason, though the Royals have won in two of the three games he received no-decisions.

“I’m not looking at his postseason numbers,” Yost said. “I’m looking at what I see on the field, and he’s kept us in ballgames.”

In two home starts last World Series, Ventura allowed two runs in 5 1/3 innings in a no-decision in Game 2, which the Royals won, and threw seven scoreless innings in Game 6, which kept the Royals alive. Ventura will become the fourth pitcher from the Dominican Republic to make three starts in the World Series.

“He knows how big it is,” Royals second baseman Ben Zobrist said. “He’s pitched in a game like this before.”

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 8:54 PM with the headline "Game 3 pitchers can bring the heat."