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Royals rout White Sox for fifth straight win

Jun 30, 2007 - 4:12 AM KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Brian Bannister pitched 6 1/3 strong innings and Esteban German and Shane Costa drove in two runs apiece as the Kansas City Royals posted their fifth consecutive victory Friday, an 8-1 triumph over the Chicago White Sox.

Bannister (5-4) allowed one run and four hits, walking four and striking out five in becoming just the second Royal since June 2003 to win five games in a single month. The righthander, who has won five of his last six starts, lowered his ERA in June to 2.77.

"Early in the game, I wasn't pitching to contact," Bannister said. "I just decided in the second inning to just bear down and pitch to contact, make the batters get aggressive, and it paid off me.

"I've been really working hard on a couple of pitches I could throw to lefties, especially a slider. I got (Jim) Thome out on it and a couple of other guys out on it."

Kansas City manager Buddy Bell was very impressed with Bannister's performance.

"Bannister was really good, except for the one inning when he got out of the zone and walked the bases loaded after a single," Bell said.

Zack Greinke relieved Bannister and allowed just one hit while striking out two in 2 2/3 innings for his first career save.

After the White Sox took a 1-0 lead on an RBI groundout by Juan Uribe in the second, German drove in the first of eight straight runs for the Royals with an infield single in the third. Costa ignited a two-run rally in the fourth with a one-out double and scored two batters later on Billy Butler's base hit.

Kansas City broke out for three more runs in the seventh to build a 6-1 cushion. German plated the first run of the frame with a single and Costa drove in the other two with a base hit of his own two batters afterward.

"It was good to see Shane get that," Royals third baseman Alex Gordon said. "In a lot of other parks, that's probably gone."

That hit ended the night for Jose Contreras (5-9), who yielded six runs and nine hits in 6 1/3 innings. The Cuban righthander struck out three but walked three and hit a pair of batters.

"I didn't have the split do anything at all," Contreras said through an interpreter. "And when I got ahead in the count, I threw the ball right down the middle. Location has been a problem the last few starts."

The loss was Contreras' fifth in six decisions overall and third in a row against the Royals after winning his first seven vs. the club.

"Pitchers set the pace," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "Bannister threw the ball really well. Contreras was cruising and got into trouble and couldn't get out of it. But when you score one run, you don't deserve to win many games."

Gordon went 2-for-3 and scored a run for Kansas City. He has raised his average from .187 to .240 since June 8, an increase of 53 points.

Rob Mackowiak collected two hits for the White Sox, who had their four-game winning streak snapped.