ALDS Game 2 starters Ventura, Shoemaker needed bounce-back ability　

The starting pitchers for Game 2 of the Royals-Angels American League Division Series require short memories for different reasons.

For the Royals’ Yordano Ventura, the last outing proved to be the most forgettable of his career, Tuesday’s Wild Card disaster against the Oakland A’s.

The Angels’ Matt Shoemaker also has a career-worst effort to flush, but it didn’t occur recently. Instead, the Royals delivered the punishment in June at Kauffman Stadium, making the most miserable day of Shoemaker’s season.

Onward for two of baseball’s best rookie pitchers who understand the game’s intensity picks up in October. Ventura learned that the hard way.

“Even though I don’t treat is a different game, it is a different game,” said Ventura through interpreter José Mota, an Angels broadcaster and former Royals infielder.

Tuesday’s experience was entirely different for Ventura, who finished his first full year with a 14-10 record, 3.20 ERA and 159 strikeouts in 183 innings.

He came out of the bullpen for only the second time, stepping into a pressure situation. The Royals led 3-2 in the sixth inning, but the first two had reached against starter James Shields.

Ventura missed with his first two pitches to Brandon Moss, who didn’t miss when Ventura threw a fat fastball. Moss rocketed his second home run of the game, a three-run shot to dead center to start a five-run Oakland inning.

Royals manager Ned Yost came under fire for choosing Ventura, who had thrown 73 pitches in the Royals’ season finale at Chicago two days earlier, in that spot.

“He was a little more amped up than he thought he would be and we thought he would be,” Yost said. “But it was a great experience for him.”

Yost and Ventura met Wednesday to hash out the playoff performance and to take measure of Ventura.

“The first thing he asked me is if I was OK, if I was feeling good,” Ventura said. “I said yes. I also want to take advantage of this opportunity to go out there, and I know I can do better the second time around.”

Ventura also got support from outside the clubhouse. One of the game’s recent greats, Pedro Martinez, took to social media and television to offer Ventura encouragement and join the chorus of Yost critics.

One of Martinez’s tweets: “Ventura, don’t feel bad about this move; it’s not your fault, it’s Yost’s fault.”

And, “Ventura, keep your head high, you have a bright future.”

“It does make me feel special because it like Pedro put himself in a situation like that before where he failed and learned from it,” Ventura said. “So that’s what I got from the whole message from him. You’re not the first one or the last one that this is going to happen to.”

Shoemaker’s bad out lasted longer than Ventura’s, who didn’t survive the sixth inning.

He was off to a solid start, bringing a 5-1 record to Kauffman Stadium on June 27, but Shoemaker got to the third inning and things fell apart.

The Royals used small ball to start a rally, a Jarrod Dyson bunt, an Eric Hosmer bloop and after a few hitters the Angels had fallen behind 3-2. But then disaster. Omar Infante blasted the first grand slam of his career, and the Royals had a seven-run inning on their way to an 8-6 victory.

“It was a rough day,” Shoemaker said. “You’re going to have those. The best guys in the game have those. So it was just how I came back after that start that was good.”

Shoemaker finished 16-4 with a 3.04 ERA and 124 strikeouts in 136 innings. He hasn’t pitched since Sept. 15 with an oblique strain but threw his second bullpen session in three days on Tuesday and earned the confidence of Angels manager Mike Scioscia.

“I didn’t think two or three weeks was a huge amount of time to be away,” Scioscia said.

And Shoemaker was grateful for the opportunity.

“It means a lot to me they wanted me to pitch there, it’s definitely an honor,” he said. “Wherever they needed me, I was more than happy to pitch in that position.”

This story was originally published October 2, 2014 at 8:47 PM with the headline "ALDS Game 2 starters Ventura, Shoemaker needed bounce-back ability　."