Onus Now Heavy on Yordano Ventura, Royals' Bats to Bring Home Pivotal Game 2

It took nine postseason games, but the Kansas City Royals finally lost. Now that they've given up home-field advantage to the battle-tested San Francisco Giants after dropping Game 1 by a score of 7-1 behind an anything but "Big Game" James Shields, the Royals need a quick turnaround Wednesday night to avoid losing the first two games of the World Series on their own turf.

After waiting 29 years to get back to October and promptly going 8-0 to start these playoffs—a run that had never been achieved before in baseball history—going down 0-2 at home is a must-avoid scenario for K.C.

After all, even before it actually happened, many already had been wondering just how the Royals would respond upon suffering a defeat for the first time since Sept. 27. Now it's up to Game 2 starter Yordano Ventura and the Royals' struggling bats to provide said response.

The task? Beat the Giants, whose even-year mojo has helped them win 16 of their past 18 games in the postseason, eight consecutive playoff series and two titles dating back to 2010.

That's a lot to ask of Ventura, a 23-year-old who left his last outing—Game 2 of the American League Championship Series on Oct. 11—with shoulder tightness and who will become the club's first-ever rookie to start a World Series game at any position.

So far, the right-hander's postseason has been a bit of a mixed bag. Ventura rather infamously gave up that two-run home run to Brandon Moss of the Oakland Athletics when brought in as a reliever in the Wild Card Game.

But prior to his so-so ALCS effort against the Baltimore Orioles (5.2 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 3:3 K:BB), Ventura put together arguably the best game by any K.C. starter in these playoffs. He limited the Los Angeles Angels—MLB's highest-scoring offense—to five hits and a run over seven frames in Game 2 of the American League Division Series.

"He's a special kid because as young as he is, and as good as his stuff is, his composure is off the charts," Kansas City manager Ned Yost said of Ventura before Game 1, via Randy Covitz of The Kansas City Star. "So you combine all those things together, and you've got a pretty special guy who is going to step on that mound."

While Ventura is on that mound, he'll have to be backed up by those in the batter's box.

After getting off to a hot, homerrific start in October, the Royals lineup has been shaky these past few games. Whether it's ALCS MVP Lorenzo Cain, Alex Gordon, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas or others, they're going to have to score some runs to take a little pressure off the rookie starter.

That's been a problem of late, and Tuesday's loss was no exception.

The bottom of the third inning was a particularly brutal example, as the Royals were down only 3-0 at the time, and the frame started with Omar Infante reaching via error and Moustakas lacing a double down the right-field line to put runners at second and third with nobody out.

Alas, Kansas City couldn't even get one run on the board against Giants ace Madison Bumgarner, who struck out Alcides Escobar and Nori Aoki then walked Cain to load 'em up before retiring Hosmer on a harmless grounder.

The good news? The Royals won't have to worry about dealing with Bumgarner, who dazzled with seven innings of three-hit, one-run ball to lower his career playoff ERA to 2.54 in 74.1 innings, for the next three games. That gives them a fighting chance starting Wednesday.

(The only run K.C. did manage against Bumgarner came on Salvador Perez's solo homer in the bottom of the seventh, which was the first runner to cross the plate in 21 innings against the lefty in his three starts in the Fall Classic since 2010. It also ended his record streak of 33.1 consecutive scoreless innings on the road in the playoffs.)

By comparison, the Royals own Jake Peavy, San Francisco's Game 2 starter.

Jeff Roberson/Associated Press/Associated Press

In 14 career starts against the Royals, the former Chicago White Sox pitcher is sporting a 4.97 ERA and 1.38 WHIP, both of which are the worst against any opponent he's faced more than six times. And in seven starts at Kauffman Stadium in his 13-year career, the right-hander is even worse: 6.42 ERA and 1.70 WHIP.

Peavy's postseason digits also don't inspire much confidence considering he has a 7.03 ERA in seven October outings.

In other words, the perfect guy is on the mound for the Royals hitters to right themselves and regain some of that early October luster.

To that end, Kansas City has scored just five runs in their past three contests going back to Game 3 of the ALCS. Facing the dominant Bumgarner provides somewhat of a ready-made excuse, but there's no such thing Wednesday against Peavy—not with his previous playoff problems and the way the Royals have handled him in the past.

As long as Kansas City's lineup takes care of Peavy, that should help Ventura, whose stuff—assuming his shoulder is all right—is dynamic, as Matthew Pouliot of Hardball Talk writes:

"

If [Ventura] has his high-90s fastball and plus curve, he's the one Royals starter capable of making Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval and Hunter Pence look bad.

And that’s what the Royals badly need after burning out their only long reliever [Danny Duffy] Tuesday. Ventura doesn’t have to go seven innings. He doesn’t even have to go six. But he probably will need to hold the Giants to a couple of runs through five if the Royals are going to send the World Series to San Francisco tied a game apiece. If they can’t do that, then they’ll need only return to Kansas City to pack up for the winter.

"

Being down 2-0 and headed to San Francisco isn't likely to end well for the Royals. So after dropping the opener, they need a big Game 2 from both their rookie pitcher and their slumping sticks.

That would allow the Royals to do something that they were going to have to prove they could do eventually in this otherwise perfect October—respond.

Statistics are accurate through Oct. 21 and courtesy of MLB.com, Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs, unless otherwise noted.

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