Ventura lands on DL with numbness in hand

KANSAS CITY -- Royals right-hander Yordano Ventura will not make his scheduled start on Friday after being placed on the 15-day disabled list with inflammation of his ulnar nerve.

The Royals will call up Yohan Pino from Triple-A Omaha to make Friday's start against the Red Sox at Kauffman Stadium.

"[Ventura] threw a side yesterday and still felt a slight numbering in his hand, so it doesn't make any sense to try and push through this thing right now," manager Ned Yost said.

Ventura's DL stint comes just six days after he left in the fourth inning of a 4-0 loss to the Cardinals with numbness in his throwing hand.

"This is something that if you continue to try and battle through it can get worse," Yost said. "[It] creates weakness and numbness in his hand. It's not a major inflammation, but the best thing to do in this case is just to knock it out, give it time to get out of there, get that fluid out from around there that's causing that inflammation and get back to throwing again."

Ventura is 3-6 with a 4.68 ERA -- allowing at least two runs in nine of his 12 starts. He also has 54 strikeouts, the second-most on the Royals' staff.

"It's been a real learning curve for him," Yost said. "He's gone through some things he's never had to go through before. A lot of those things, even though they're tough to go through, they're great learning processes."

Meanwhile, Pino is 4-2 in seven Minor League games (six starts) with a 4.93 ERA and 31 strikeouts. In 14 innings with the Royals this season, Pino has given up just one run, walked two and struck out 13.