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Bannister, Royals shut down Twins

Aug 8, 2007 - 5:09 AM By Marc Bowman PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) - Brian Bannister scattered six hits over seven innings as the Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 5-1, on Tuesday.

Mark Teahen tied a career high with four hits and David DeJesus doubled twice to help the Royals snap a three-game losing streak.

Bannister (8-6) won for the eighth time in his last 12 starts despite surrendering four extra-base hits.

"He has such an awareness about him," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "He really knows what he's trying to do out there and, of course, he has such great command. He seems to hit a little bump early on, but he always recovers and bounces back.

"For whatever reason, when you're throwing strikes and have a good tempo, it's a lot easier. He's capable of pitching out of jams. He got into a couple of them but he was able to make his pitches. Guys have a lot of confidence in him."

In pitching seven innings for the fourth consecutive start, Bannister allowed six hits and one run, walking one and striking out one. He is 3-0 with one no-decision in those four starts.

"My number one goal has been to be a guy who they can count on to go out there and go seven innings every start," Bannister said. "When you can do that, the lineup starts to trust you and the defense comes along, and you can build on that confidence. I just want to be a guy people can trust day in and day out."

"His curveball wasn't there at the beginning," catcher John Buck said. "But he stuck with it, fortunately, because he came back with it and got some big outs with it later. That was the key tonight."

Teahen scored ahead of Ross Gload's two-out double in the first inning to give Kansas City a 1-0 lead.

DeJesus doubled in the third and broke a 1-1 tie when he scored on Mark Grudzielanek's sacrifice fly.

"David gave us a lot of energy," Bell said. "His double really got us going."

After DeJesus' second double drove in Joey Gathright in the fifth inning, Teahen doubled to center, plating DeJesus to increase the Royals lead to 4-1. Teahen also doubled and scored in the eighth.

"I've been working on a few things, and taking good swings," Teahen said of the four-hit night. "You take what you can get. I'm always trying to working on things, day to day, always messing with stuff. It's a game of adjustments and it's going well right now."

"When he got his third hit - a hustle double - it gave us a boost," Bell said. "I thought we played with a lot of energy. It was a solid night all the way around."

Zack Greinke pitched a scoreless eighth before Joakim Soria worked around a leadoff single in the ninth to close out the Twins for his 12th save.

Minnesota collected their lone run when Justin Morneau and Torii Hunter hit back-to-back doubles to lead off the second inning.

"Our offense just isn't going right now," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Torii hits some balls hard, but overall we're not driving in runs. Some of our guys hit the ball hard tonight. We need to keep swinging and see if we can get out of this thing."

Morneau, the reigning American League MVP, entered the game mired in an 0-for-17 slump. He went 2-for-4.

"It doesn't matter when you lose," Morneau said. "It was a tough day for us. We just need to string some hits together and gets some balls to fall, and things will go our way. We hit some line drives, hit some balls hard. It's a good sign."

Twins righthander Boof Bonser (5-8) went seven innings, allowing four runs on nine hits with no walks and two strikeouts.

"Bonser was pitching with a fastball most of the time," Gardenhire said. "He really didn't have a breaking ball. He battled pretty good after he'd given up the four runs. He stayed in there for a couple of extra innings."

Bonser lost his sixth consecutive game and has not won since June 10.

"I can't worry about that," Bonser said. "I've just got to do my job. We're definitely capable of putting a bunch of runs on the board. We got some hits early. Unfortunately, we didn't get them across. That happens. There's nothing you can do about it."

The game was delayed in the bottom of the eighth inning when a bank of lights over the right field stands failed.