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Royals-Athletics Preview

May 13, 2009 - 6:25 AM By JEFF MEZYDLO STATS Senior Writer

Kansas City (18-15) at Oakland (12-18), 10:05 p.m. EDT

The last time the Kansas City Royals won a game, Brian Bannister had a big hand in the outcome.

Looking to continue his strong start, the right-hander tries to help the Royals end their season-high four-game losing streak Wednesday night in the finale of a two-game road series with the Oakland Athletics.

Another member of Kansas City's talented rotation, Bannister (3-0, 1.48 ERA) allowed five hits and struck out seven in six scoreless innings of a 3-1 victory over Seattle on Thursday.

"I would put that right up there with one of the top three starts that we've seen this season," Royals manager Trey Hillman said.

That result extended Kansas City's season-high winning streak to six games. The Royals (18-15) then embarked on a five-game road trip and haven't won since.

They scored four total runs while dropping three straight to the Los Angeles Angels before falling 12-3 on Tuesday.

Bannister, who is 3-0 for the second straight year despite beginning this season at Triple-A Omaha, is 1-1 with a 3.38 ERA in five starts against Oakland.

The Royals lead the majors with a 3.67 staff ERA, but hope for a better effort on the mound after being pummeled by the A's, whose 133 runs are the second-fewest in the AL behind Seattle's 132.

"I know the A's have been wanting to wake those bats up and I'm not real excited about the fact that it was us that did it," Hillman said.

Coming off a 5-0 loss to Toronto on Sunday, Oakland (12-18) scored its most runs since beating Arizona 15-1 on June 17.

"We were playing hard but you have to do that every time, every single play," said Oakland shortstop Orlando Cabrera, who had three hits with four RBIs hours after calling a hitters-only meeting prior to Tuesday's contest.

Jack Cust's three-run homer highlighted a seven-run second inning for the A's, who are 3-5 on their nine-game homestand. Matt Holliday drove in two runs for Oakland, which snapped a six-game losing streak to Kansas City.

Despite batting .237, Holliday, who hit no worse than .290 in his previous five seasons with Colorado, has driven in seven runs in his last seven games. His only hit in five at-bats against Bannister is a home run.

Josh Outman (0-0, 4.79) will make his third straight start and fifth of the season for the A's. He allowed three runs and six hits while striking out five and walking three in 4 1-3 innings of a 5-3 win over Toronto on Friday.

The 24-year-old left-hander, who attended Central Missouri, makes his first start versus the Royals after pitching two scoreless innings of relief against them last season.

Coco Crisp homered and had three hits Tuesday for Kansas City, which remains percentage points behind AL Central-leader Detroit despite batting .218 and being outscored 21-7 on the trip.

Crisp is 6 for 11 in his last three games.