Royals demote Ventura to minors

Yordano Ventura is going back to the minors to try to regain the form of his strong rookie season.

The Kansas City Royals optioned Ventura to Class AAA Omaha on Tuesday after a string of ineffective outings by the opening- day starting pitcher.

“A lot of times it’s good for players to take a step back, so they can take three or four steps forward,” manager Ned Yost said.

Ventura, 24, who can run his fastball into triple digits, is 4- 7 with a 5.19 ERA in 14 starts this season. He spent nearly a month on the disabled list with inflammation of his ulnar nerve.

Yost acknowledged Ventura was probably feeling frustration.

“He knows what he’s capable of doing,” Yost said. “He feels like with his performance a little bit that he’s letting everybody down, which is not the case. Everybody believes in him 100%.”

Left- hander Jason Vargas came off the DL and started Tuesday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Vargas had been sidelined by a left flexor strain.

Ventura gave up six runs and 10 hits in four- plus innings in Monday night’s 10- 7 loss to the Pirates. He is 1- 3 with a 9.00 ERA in his last four starts.

After going 14- 10 with a 3.20 ERA last season and throwing seven scoreless innings to beat the San Francisco Giants in Game 6 of the World Series, Ventura signed a five- year, $ 23 million contract with the Royals at the end of spring training. He also started Game 2 of the World Series, which the Royals also won.

“Everybody still knows if we make it back to the World Series he’s going to be a big reason why,” Yost said. “So just going down and having success for a week or two or three or four or whatever it may be is going to help him in the long run.”