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Bannister goes the distance as Royals pound A's

Aug 18, 2007 - 6:50 AM By Ryan Leong PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

OAKLAND, California (Ticker) - Brian Bannister used nine innings to show Dan Meyer how it is done.

Bannister notched his first complete game and the Kansas City Royals made it a long night for Meyer as they posted a 9-2 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Friday night.

The Royals jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning against Meyer, a rookie lefthander who was making his first career appearance for Oakland.

Bannister (9-7) allowed two runs and four hits for the win. He struck out four and walked just one.

"He wasn't struggling early but he couldn't find the strike zone," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "All of a sudden he was throwing just about whatever he wanted to whenever he wanted."

"The last (complete game) was in double A, I threw a four-hit shutout so that was tied for the best I've done in a nine-inning game," Bannister said. "It is weird because people do make a bigger deal of it now. Fifteen-twenty years ago, it was a very standard thing to do."

Oakland answered with a solo home run by Nick Swisher in the first, but managed little else against Bannister.

Bannister retired nine straight until the sixth. Travis Buck led off with a double to left but strained his left hamstring after rounding second base.

Jeff DaVanon, who came in as a pinch runner, became the 50th player used by the Athletics in 2007, highlighting what has been an injury-plagued campaign for the A's. DaVanon would score on a grounder for the A's second run.

"The guys are playing as hard as they can every night and occassionally it happens," A's manager Bob Geren said. "They're giving a great effort every night and that's all I could ask for."

Meyer (0-1) was acquired in December 16, 2004 from the Atlanta Braves along with righthanded pitcher Juan Cruz and outfielder Charles Thomas for Tim Hudson

"I'm way past where I was two years ago," Meyer said. "But now just getting here for me is not the accomplishment, I want to stay here. I want to help contribute and want to do what I can to keep us in the ballgame, help us win and tonight I didn't get it done."

In the first, leadoff hitter Esteban German hit what looked like a routine fly ball to right. Oakland right fielder Jack Cust camped under the ball only to see it fall out of his glove and German ended up on second base.

"I don't know, it's a routine play and I don't know what happened," Cust said, "It hit off the heel of my glove and popped out. We never really recovered from that and it snowballed from there. We didn't get much going off Bannister either. It stunk for Dan (Meyer) because he made a good pitch and we should have had an out but it just didn't happen."

Joey Gathright sacrificed German to third and he scored after a triple by Mark Grudzielanek. Billy Butler followed with a run-scoring double and Emil Brown capped off the scoring with a booming two-run homer to left.

"We added onto (the lead) too so we didn't sit right there," Brown said. "Most of the credit should go to the pitcher because he pitched good. He gave up a couple of runs but it didn't seem like he had many situations where he could be hurt."

The Royals scored two more runs in the third inning. Butler walked and scored on a triple to right-center by Mark Teahen. Teahen later scored on a wild pitch.

"Hopefully this will give us a little momentum offensively that we need," Bell said.

Meyer lasted only four innings, allowing six runs and five hits.

"Tonight they took advantage and hurt me," Meyer said. "They did what they're supposed to do and that was hit mistakes and they did a good job of it. My job is to change speeds, keep them off balance and I struggled with that tonight."

"I think he left a few pitches over the middle of the plate and it didn't seem like he had his best location today but it happens," Brown said. "Everybody's not going to have their A game every time they go out."

In the seventh, the Royals scored two more runs off reliever Santiago Casilla.

Tony Pena singled to left, advanced to third and scored on a wild pitch. Gathright who reached base on an infield hit, advanced to third on the wild pitch. He would score on a fielder's choice hit back to the pitcher.

Casilla made an ill-advised attempt to try to throw out the runner at home instead of throwing to first for the sure out. Instead, Gathright slid around catcher Kurt Suzuki, who was not expecting the ball and had gestured that Casilla throw to first.

The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Athletics, who fell back to three games under .500 (60-63) and nine games back in the wild card race.