Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura dies in car crash

Yordano Ventura, the hard-throwing and fearless righthander who was a crucial part of two pennant-winning teams for the Kansas City Royals, was killed in a car accident in his native Dominican Republic on Sunday, the team confirmed on Sunday. Ventura was 25. Ventura was killed on the Juan Adrián highway in San Jose de Ocoa, according to Colonel Jacobo Mateo Moquete, director of communications for the military and police of the Dominican Republic. Moquete said Ventura was the lone passenger in the vehicle. Ventura started 93 games in his career with the Royals, posting a 38-31 record and 3.89 ERA, and going 27-18 in 2014-15, when the Royals won back-to-back American League pennants and the 2015 World Series. Ventura made 10 postseason starts in those seasons.

Ventura’s death comes more than two years after another very promising young player, outfielder Oscar Taveras, was killed in a car accident in the Dominican Republic. Taveras was 24 when he and his girlfriend were killed in Puerto Plata on October 26, 2014. News of Taveras’ death emerged during Game 5 of the 2014 World Series, and Ventura started and won Game 6 to force a decisive Game 7.

Ventura pitched Game 6 with Taveras’ initials and uniform number on his cap.

In an odd coincidence, former major league infielder Andy Marte, 33, also died in a car crash in the Dominican Republic over the weekend. Ventura was the starting pitcher in the final game of Marte’s career, in August 2014.

Ventura went 11-12 with a 4.45 ERA in 2016, earning $1 million in the second season of a five-year contract that guaranteed him $23 million. His death will create a signficant void in the Royals rotation, although the club’s greater concern Sunday, of course, was remembering their fearless starter who developed from a skinny 16-year-old signed for a mere $28,000 to one of their key cogs in a glorious chapter in franchise history.