Yordano Ventura stumbles as Royals fall to Rangers, 5-2

As Royals manager Ned Yost surveyed the wreckage of Yordano Ventura’s latest start — with 10 hits allowed, five runs scored against him and a 5-2 loss to Texas on his ledger — he pinpointed only a pair of mistakes. The first involved pitch selection. The second involved execution.

Both blunders resulted in home runs as Ventura deposited his club in a five-run hole after four innings. He ditched his metaphorical shovel midway through and logged seven innings, but the damage was done. Kansas City never recovered from the early deficit, and will hope to salvage a series split with the Rangers on Thursday afternoon at Globe Life Park.

The Royals (21-13) never led on Wednesday. In the first, Ventura shook off catcher Salvador Perez’s call for a breaking ball to leadoff hitter Shin-Soo Choo. Choo responded with a solo shot. An inning later, Ventura hung a curveball to slugger Prince Fielder. Fielder mashed a two-run homer.

“Those were the two major mistakes,” Yost said. “Going seven innings, I thought he did a nice job doing that. I thought he really settled down after the second inning.”

By nature, Yost analyzes his club for public consumption through rose-colored glasses. Praise for Ventura (2-3, 5.36 ERA) ignores his 6.87 ERA since instigating a brawl in Chicago. It ignores the concern of rival scouts about the consistency of his off-speed offerings. It ignores his inability to bully opposing hitters with his fastball in his sophomore season.

Ventura headlines a starting rotation fraught with instability. The group entered Wednesday’s game ranked No. 22 in baseball with a 4.60 ERA. Danny Duffy has lasted 4 2/3 innings in his last two starts. Jason Vargas is on the disabled list. Edinson Volquez is recovering from a thumb blister. With his outing on Thursday, Jeremy Guthrie has a chance to build on a promising start against Detroit last weekend, but he was the team’s weakest starter in April.

As the season progresses, Yost believes the rotation will recover. Yet the uncertainty creates a nightly crucible for the offense. On some nights, like Tuesday’s rollicking victory, they can recover. On others, like Wednesday’s nine-inning slumber, they cannot.

Even at the height of his powers, Ventura may have been in trouble on Wednesday. The offense stayed quiet until Kendrys Morales and Salvador Perez roped a pair of RBI doubles in the seventh. Then they went quiet again. Yovani Gallardo breezed up and down the Royals lineup otherwise for seven innings.

“He’s always had good stuff,” outfielder Lorenzo Cain said. “I don’t think he had his location tonight like he normally has, but he was very effective against us. We couldn’t score any runs. We couldn’t get any hits.”

The players spent a chunk of the afternoon wondering if the game would occur at all. A flash-flood warning gripped North Texas into the evening. Rain battered the diamond all morning and afternoon, spilling into the dugout and pooling in the outfield. But the storm cells broke up before 7 p.m. and the game began on time.

Ventura relaxed inside the clubhouse. He teamed with second baseman Omar Infante for a game of foosball against catcher Salvador Perez and reliever Franklin Morales. Ventura revealed none of the strain believed to be hounding him in recent weeks.

On Friday in Detroit, Ventura looked lively after serving his seven-game suspension. He gave up four runs, but all occurred in one of his six innings. The other five were spotless, and he pitched with enough passion to encourage Yost.

Ventura has earned raves for the velocity of his fastball. But speed is only one element of success. Location is critical. So is a diverse pitch selection. Ventura re-learned this lesson with his sixth pitch of the game. Perez called for a curveball. Ventura sought heat instead.

“He’s got a dynamite curveball and a dynamite changeup,” Yost said. “He’s got other options there that he can go to. He had a lot of confidence in his fastball. But six in a row to good fastball hitter is quite a few.”

Shin-Soo Choo crushed a 98-mph fastball for his second leadoff homer in as many days. Explained catching coach Pedro Grifol, who translated for Ventura, “Those are situations that he’s learning from, and adjustments that he’ll make next time he goes out there.”

The next four batters also reached. Ventura nabbed two strikes against shortstop Elvis Andrus but followed up with four balls in a row. Prince Fielder singled. Adrian Beltre did likewise.

At this juncture, Ventura experienced some good luck. First baseman Mitch Moreland pulverized a 96-mph heater. His hit sizzled off the right-field wall. But its flight confounded Fielder at second base. He only advanced to third, which left the bases loaded. Ventura retired the next three batters with two strikes out and a pop-up.

“It could have been a heck of a lot worse,” Yost said. “To limit the damage to two runs was a phenomenal job.”

An inning later, Fielder compensated for the failings of his feet with the force of his bat. A runner stood at third base when Fielder came up. There were two outs. Ventura tried to unveil his offspeed options to defuse Fielder.

Fielder swung through a low curveball for strike one. A foul ball put him down, 0-2. Fielded passed on a second curve, this one bound for the dirt. The third bender of the at-bat hung in the air, the sort of low-hanging fruit Fielder feasts upon. He unloaded a two-run home run.

Two innings later, Ventura fooled outfielder Delino DeShields with a 2-2 fastball. The pitch hummed at 95 mph and caught a lower slice of the strike zone. Even so, home-plate umpire Ted Barrett called it a ball. DeShields ripped the next fastball for a triple, and scored Texas’ fifth run on a groundout by Choo.

Ventura aided his club’s bullpen by lasting through the seventh. It was his longest start since that night in Chicago. But the length of the outing did not offset the early deficit.

“He understands that those were a couple of mistakes he made early,” Grifol said. “But he’s going to continue to work hard, grind it out to make the adjustments and continue to get better.”

This story was originally published May 13, 2015 at 9:26 PM with the headline "Yordano Ventura stumbles as Royals fall to Rangers, 5-2."