Yordano Ventura (right) and Jeremy Guthrie (PHOTO: Orlin Wagner/AP Photo)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Jeremy Guthrie is slated to start Game 7 of the World Series for the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday, so he got a night off from his side gig on Tuesday.

Guthrie, a veteran of parts of 11 Major League seasons, became a familiar sight at postseason press conferences this year not just for his own pitching, but because he often serves as an English translator for fellow starter Yordano Ventura. Infielder Christian Colon translated for Ventura on Tuesday, presumably because Guthrie had some preparing to do.

The 35-year-old Guthrie is an Oregon native who learned to speak Spanish fluently while serving a Mormon mission in Spain. And his media-room efforts for the Royals in 2014 did not go unrecognized: The team gave Guthrie a gift card to popular local restaurant Jack Stack Barbecue in appreciation of his work as a translator.

(PHOTO: JackStackBBQ.com)

“It’s a great restaurant,” Guthrie said. “I look forward to it. We need to win these games so I can be able to go out and enjoy it.”

For the Win sampled burnt ends and ribs from Jack Stack in the interest of thorough journalism and can confirm that it is a great restaurant. But though Guthrie appreciated the club’s gesture, he joked that he hoped he would get more from interpreting for Ventura, who averaged a league-best 97-mph with his fastball in 2014.

“I was really hoping the interviews would help me throw harder, but it still hasn’t worked,” Guthrie said. “I’m looking for another three or four miles per hour by doing the interviews. So far, I’ve been given one gift card.”