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Brewers beat Royals, push winning streak to five games

Jun 24, 2007 - 3:05 AM MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- With the Milwaukee Brewers' bats rolling and the Kansas City Royals' hottest pitcher on the mound, something had to give.

Dave Bush pitched seven strong innings and Johnny Estrada drove in two runs as the Brewers won their fifth straight game, a 7-1 victory over the Royals on Saturday night.

Since Detroit's Justin Verlander tossed a no-hitter on June 12, Milwaukee has won five straight games, four consecutive series and climbed 12 games above .500.

"I wouldn't hesitate to say that it woke us up," Bush said.

The Brewers wasted little time roughing up starter Brian Bannister (4-4), who had his personal four-game winning streak come to an end. Craig Counsell delivered an RBI double and came around on Prince Fielder's run-scoring groundout in the first inning for a 2-0 edge. Fielder leads the National League with 61 RBI.

Two frames later, Ryan Braun laced an RBI double of his own and Estrada stroked a two-out, two-run single to center as Milwaukee pushed its lead to 5-1.

"Time after time, we look back and see who had a big two-out hit that made a difference," Brewers manager Ned Yost said. "Johnny's hit was a big one for us."

That was more than enough run support for Bush (5-6), who recorded back-to-back wins for the first time this season. The righthander yielded one run and eight hits with five strikeouts.

"Really, I'm just making better pitches when I have to. It's no secret, it's actually pretty simple I think," Bush said.

Bush's lone mistake came in the second, when Alex Gordon doubled to left-center field and scored on Ryan Shealy's RBI single.

"That's a hot team we're playing over there," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "It was a bad night all the way around."

Milwaukee's Corey Hart continued to shine in the leadoff spot, finishing with three singles, an RBI and a stolen base. Since being inserted into the No. 1 slot on May 30, Hart is batting .387 with seven homers, 18 RBI and nine stolen bases.

"When we went through that bad stretch, guys weren't getting those hits and now they're happening and things are working out right now," Hart said. "I'm just getting comfortable up there."

Bill Hall smacked his ninth homer on the first pitch of his at-bat in the fifth inning, after striking out on six pitches in his first two appearances.

Bannister gave up six runs and six hits in five innings. He had been one of the hottest pitchers in all of baseball in the month of June, allowing just five earned runs through four starts prior to Saturday.

"I really wanted to come in and give us a quality start," Bannister said. "But they're playing well, hot and feeling strong over there."

The Royals have lost four consecutive games.