Royals’ Bruce Chen won’t start Wednesday

Given a chance to re-set their rotation, the Royals have skipped struggling fifth starter Bruce Chen.

The team scratched him from his scheduled start on Wednesday against Toronto.

Instead, the rotation for these three games against the Blue Jays will feature Jason Vargas starting on Tuesday, Yordano Ventura on Wednesday and Jeremy Guthrie on Thursday.

James Shields pitches the series opener on Friday against Detroit. Chen, 1-1 with a 7.45 ERA, starts on Saturday.

The team has already pushed one Chen start back, as he dealt with a minor case of tightness in a glute muscle. In his past three starts, he has allowed 15 runs in 13 innings. But manager Ned Yost has not wavered in his support of Chen as a starter, despite the presence on the roster of Danny Duffy.

This story was originally published April 29, 2014 at 3:21 PM with the headline "Royals’ Bruce Chen won’t start Wednesday."