What It Means:

The hard-throwing right-hander walked four and allowed just two hits on the afternoon. While he has been highly inconsistent this season, he continues to show flashes of the top of the rotation hurler that the Royals expect him to become. He'll look to replicate this fine effort when he squares off against the Tigers on Wednesday.

For the season, Ventura is the holder of a 3.81 FIP and an 8.00 strikeouts-per-nine rate, which means his ugly ERA of 4.41 isn't an accurate depiction of his pitching. He's still walking 3.14 hitters per nine innings, which isn't good, but it's on pace for a new career-best clip. Our rest-of-season projections -- 4.61 ERA and 1.39 WHIP -- aren't flattering.