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Royals blank Tigers behind Bannister

Apr 2, 2008 - 9:28 PM DETROIT (Ticker) -- The vaunted Detroit Tigers lineup proved to be no match for Brian Bannister.

Bannister pitched seven outstanding innings Wednesday to lead the Kansas City Royals to a 4-0 victory over the Tigers.

Bannister (1-0) allowed just two hits and did not walk a batter while striking out four.

The righthander, who was the second-best rookie pitcher in the American League to Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka last season, needed just 86 pitches to shut down the potent Detroit offense.

"That's a good lineup, and I know I'll have to pitch against them four or five more times, so I wanted to show them early what I'm capable of doing," Bannister said. "They have a lot more expectations on them than we do, so I wanted to put them under pressure early and make them uncomfortable."

Detroit featured one of the most prolific lineups in the AL least season, one that featured sluggers Magglio Ordonez, Gary Sheffield and Carlos Guillen.

The Tigers added even more pop with the offseason acquisitions of Miguel Cabrera and Edgar Renteria. But Bannister was undaunted Wednesday afternoon, improving to 3-1 all-time against the Tigers.

"They are expecting to score a lot of runs and their fans are expecting them to score a lot of runs, and we could take advantage of that pressure," Bannister said. "I wanted to make them swing the bat - not let them get into take mode."

Leo Nunez and Joakim Soria each pitched an inning of relief to finish off the shutout and give the Royals their second consecutive win over the Tigers.

Jose Guillen and Billy Butler smacked back-to-back doubles off Detroit starter Kenny Rogers (0-1) in the sixth inning to stake Kansas City to a 2-0 lead.

"We didn't do anything in the first five innings, but (Bannister) kept us in the game, so it seemed even bigger when we finally got him a couple runs," Butler said. "When Kenny's throwing like that, it's tough. We just finally got something off him."

Mark Grudzielanek led off the sixth with a double and Alex Gordon moved him to third with a groundout. Guillen ripped a double down the left field line to plate the first run of the game, and Butler followed with a drive over the head of center fielder Brandon Inge.

"That was big. It was nice placement by (Grudzielanek), and then two balls that were very well struck," Royals manager Trey Hillman said. "Kenny was really good today, and when he's throwing like that, you just have to find one pitch that you can hit. Luckily, we got a couple that we could do something with."

The Royals tacked on two more runs in the eighth when Butler and Mark Teahen hit RBI singles off reliever Zach Miner.

Rogers pitched six innings, allowing two runs, five hits and one walk with four strikeouts.

"I felt good with it, for sure, first time out," Rogers said. "Disappointed that I didn't hold us in there close enough where we could squeeze out a run or two to win.

"All in all, those kind of results you'll take pretty much every time out. The second run I gave up was not very smart pitching by me."

Renteria accounted for all three Detroit hits. He led off the bottom of the first with a base hit up the middle, but was erased on double play grounder by Sheffield.

Renteria also led off the fourth with a single, but Bannister stranded him at second base.

"If we get shut out today by somebody who's leaving balls right in the middle of the plate, hanging breaking balls or something like that, I'd be a little concerned," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "But when the guy located like he did today, used that many pitches, got that many pitches, good command of them, that's the way it goes."