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Royals beat up on Cardinals

Jun 13, 2007 - 5:51 AM KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- For one of the few times this season, the ball bounced the Kansas City Royals' way.

The Royals took advantage of a pair of bad-hop hits to power a five-run first inning as they rolled to an 8-1 victory over the intrastate rival St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday.

Kansas City continued its hot hitting, following a season-high 17-run outburst on Sunday by pounding out eight hits to build an 8-0 lead after three innings.

"We got big hits from Alex (Gordon), (Mark) Teahen and (Jason) LaRue," Royals Manager Buddy Bell said. "We continued to hit like we did on Sunday and we hope that continues. No doubt that any time you score early it's good, but we still have to keep playing and I thought we did a good job of staying after it."

Brian Bannister (3-3) scattered seven singles over seven scoreless innings to get his first home victory of the season and third straight overall.

"When you get a pitched game that good you're in good shape," Bell said. "He ran out of gas a little in the seventh, but he was outstanding."

"I had to take a deep breath and step back," Bannister said. "I knew that in this game with all the fans here being loud, the pitchers want to throw it hard and the hitters want to hit it a long way. I wanted to try to use that aggressiveness against them."

The righthander struck out Juan Encarnacion to escape a bases-loaded jam in the first inning and finished the game with a season high-tying six strikeouts while walking two.

"It was a 2-2 changeup," Bannister said of the strikeout pitch. "Sometimes weird things happen. I was lucky to get out of the first inning unscathed."

"He showed really good composure," Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa said of Bannister getting out of the first inning without allowing a run. "He gets Jimmy (Edmonds) out and Scott (Rolen) had a really good at-bat to load the bases. He never flustered and finally made a pitch to end the inning. He did the same thing the next chance he had."

Kansas City scored in each of the first three innings Tuesday after scoring in each of the last three on Sunday.

German and LaRue drove in two runs apiece on grounders that eluded Cardinals third baseman Scott Rolen in the first inning.

"We definitely got a couple of good bounces go our way," Royals captain Mike Sweeney said. "Rolen doesn't miss too many of those. Of course, we did a good job of hitting and taking advantage."

After Teahen's one-out RBI triple started the scoring, Mike Sweeney and Gordon were hit by pitches to load the bases. German hit a grounder that skipped off the edge of the infield cut-out and scooted under Rolen's glove into left field to score Teahen and Sweeney, as the Royals took a 3-0 lead.

"I think we're doing more at the plate now," Gordon said. "And once someone gets it going, the rest follow. Teahen got us going tonight with the triple."

LaRue followed with a double that bounced off the third base bag and over Rolen, scoring Gordon and German, to boost Kansas City's advantage to 5-0.

The Royals added two more runs in the second on RBI singles by Gordon and German, and Teahen plated another run in the third with a two-out RBI single.

Teahen, Gordon and German each had three hits in the game as German tied a season high with three RBI and Teahen fell a home run shy of hitting for the cycle.

"It was nice to see Esteban get a couple of hits; he's been struggling lately," Bell said. "I was pulling for Mark to get the cycle. You don't often get a chance to hit for the cycle. I thought he had a couple of pitches there where he had a chance to get it. Sometimes when you are trying to hit a home run you get out of your mechanics a little. But he'll have other opportunities."

Bannister has not allowed an earned run in his last 17 innings. In his last three starts, he has allowed two runs and just 14 hits in 23 innings.

"He's getting ahead of hitters and executing pitches," LaRue said. "We want to go out there and have a game plan. Obviously if you're able to execute the plan it helps. He made good pitches when he needed to."

"I give a lot of credit to Mac," Bannister said, referring to Royals Pitching Coach Bob McClure. "He revamped my pitching style. I'm a four-pitch pitcher now. The changeup has really come along. I have the confidence to throw it in any count or any situation."

Cardinals starter Brad Thompson (4-2) worked 4 1/3 innings, allowing eight runs on eight hits, walking four with no strikeouts.

"I can't remember the last time I've been this frustrated," Thompson said. "I'm almost to the point I want to find a puppy and kick it pretty much. You've just got to learn from it. You've got to do something to get your mind off of it."

Rolen collected the 1,500th hit of his career on a one- out single in the sixth.

Pinch hitter Ryan Ludwick got the Cardinals on the board with a solo home run off David Riske in the ninth.

The Royals have outscored interleague opponents, 52-27, in taking five of seven games overall against National League opponents.

"This is what I expected out of this team," Teahen said. "I expected us to hit. I didn't get to be a part of it on Sunday so I wanted to get in there and get a piece of it today."