Editor's note: Read the original Spanish-language story here.
NEW YORK -- For Yordano Ventura, the young Dominican starter for the Kansas City Royals, getting on the mound has become a balancing act between keeping his emotions in check and not losing his identity as a pitcher.
“I know when I need to do it and it comes naturally; I've got my flow up there and that's me,” Ventura said in Spanish in an interview with ESPNdeportes.com.
In order to create such a delicate balance, after he struggled to find it in the past, Ventura had to look no further than the Royals' infield.
Catcher Salvador Perez, shortstop Alcides Escobar, third baseman Mike Moustakas and first baseman Eric Hosmer have created a buffer zone to protect Ventura from himself.
“When I'm on the field, Salvador, Alcides, Hosmer and Moustakas talk to me a lot and that helps me. They're always giving me support, telling me, ‘Stay focused out there, don't get out of your zone,’ and that's something that has helped me a lot,” said the 24-year-old right-hander.
Hosmer, in particular, has seen how Ventura, who will start the third game of the World Series on Friday against the New York Mets, has benefited from listening to them in order to try to stay calm, rather than reacting automatically and impulsively.
"I always remind him that that's what the other team is trying to make him do,” explained Hosmer regarding opponents who tend to exploit Ventura's emotions as his Achilles' heel.
“They try to throw him off his game and his focus. As a young player in this league it can be helpful to have someone remind you of that. I just tell him to concentrate on his game, that they're trying to get him riled, that he only has to worry about the task at hand.”
Ventura also credits pitching coach Dave Eiland and his countrymen Edinson Volquez and Johnny Cueto as playing a part in the emotional control that has seen him achieve greater professional success.
“When I enter the clubhouse, Cueto and Volquez are always there, you can count on it,” Ventura said. “They tell me if they see anything wrong. Starters like them have really helped me a lot by telling me about how to behave during the game. That has helped me a lot and I'll keep applying it in my game because it's worked well for me.”
“Another thing that has helped me a lot this season is the pitching coach,” he added. “I had several problems, but then I managed to control my emotions and things have gone well in the second half of the season. I'll continue to work on this in the playoffs to get a good result.”
At only 24, Ventura could be very close to achieving that ultimate goal of controlling his impulses and balancing them with the intensity required to perform well on the mound.
According to the Dominican star Jose Bautista, who became a nemesis of Ventura's this season, if Ventura can maintain that balance, he could go on to be ranked among the very best.
“Yordano is a very young player and immaturity comes with the territory,” the Blue Jays' Bautista said in Spanish recently. “He'll learn a lot and he's got the talent to be one of the best Dominican players in the major leagues for many years”.
“What he needs is to learn from his experiences, both good and bad, and continue to develop as a person. You never know, but he could be one of the best Dominican pitchers of all time, because he genuinely has the tools to achieve that.”