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Royals look to continue fine play on the road

Jun 2, 2007 - 1:56 PM Kansas City (20-35) at Tampa Bay (22-30) 7:10 pm EDT

ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (Ticker) -- With their seven-game skid halted and their road woes against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays seemingly over, the Kansas City Royals will attempt to do something they been doing a lot of lately - winning on the road.

The Royals continue their four-game series with the Devil Rays on Saturday when they meet at Tropicana Field.

Kansas City, which had dropped seven straight and 11 of 13 here since the beginning of the 2004 season to Tampa Bay, got a spectacular outing from Brian Bannister on Friday, who allowed just two hits over eight frames for his first win as a Royal. In addition to ending their losing streak, the Royals improved to 7-2 in their last nine games away from Kauffman Stadium.

Odalis Perez (2-5, 5.61 ERA), who has yielded three or fewer runs or fewer in five of his previous six starts, attempts to snap a six-game winless streak as he takes the mound.

He is 1-1 with a 7.84 ERA in two career starts against Tampa Bay, but has not faced them in nearly six years, when he was still with the Atlanta Braves.

The lefthander's one start in which he allowed more than three runs was his last one, as he surrendered a season-high six runs over 5 2/3 innings in a 7-4 loss to Seattle on Sunday.

The Devil Rays will be looking to get Edwin Jackson (0-6, 7.12) his first win since September 26, 2005. He did not record a decision last season working mostly as a reliever after Tampa Bay acquired him in a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers and is winless in nine starts this season.

Although he did not factor into the decision, the righthander is coming off one of his finer performances, yielding three runs - two earned - and striking out nine in 6-5 win over the Tigers on Monday.