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Royals RHP Bannister aims to end personal slide

May 6, 2008 - 12:20 PM LA Angels (21-13) at Kansas City (14-17) 8:10 pm EDT

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) - Brain Bannister hopes to get out of his recent funk when the Kansas City Royals meet the Los Angeles Angeles in the second of a three-game series on Tuesday.

Bannister (3-3, 4.04 ERA) jumped out of the gates with an impressive 3-0 record for the Royals before things started to go south for the righthander, who is now mired in a three-game slide.

Most recently, Bannister was tagged for a season-high in runs (7) and hits (7) through just three innings of a 11-9 loss at the Texas Rangers last Wednesday. It was the second-shortest outing of his career.

The Angels hand the ball to rookie Nick Adenhart (0-0, 22.50), who will be making his first career start. The righthander was last then stellar in his debut out of the bullpen, giving up five runs and three hits with five walks in just two frames against Oakland.

The 21-year-old Adenhart hopes to match the effort of teammate Erwin Santana, who was excellent in Monday's series opener.

Santana yielded four hits with a season-best nine strikeouts for his second career shutout. He improved to 6-0 as the Angels scored all their runs in the ninth inning to post a 4-0 win over the Royals.

With fellow starters John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar on the disabled list, Santana and Joe Saunders (6-0) have helped keep the Angels in first place in the American League West.

"Joe and I just do our job," Santana said. "They're not here yet. We'll just keep going until they get here. I think we're going to get better. I just wish Escobar get healthy and Lackey, too."