Bannister wins fifth straight as Royals top Tigers

6/6/2010

KANSAS CITY — Brian Bannister won his career-high fifth straight start, Jose Guillen hit a three-run homer and the Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers 7-2 on Sunday.

Bannister (6-3) improved to 20-8 in day games during his career, and he's 5-2 with a 2.16 ERA in nine starts against the Tigers. He also ended his streak of allowing a home run at nine consecutive games, which was the longest active streak in the majors.

Bannister held Detroit to five hits and one walk while striking out five in 7 1-3 innings.

Guillen hit his 13th home run with two outs in the first inning. Yuniesky Betancourt added an RBI double in the second, and hot-hitting Jason Kendall's run-scoring single made it 5-0.

Kendall hit .385 with six RBIs on the seven-game homestand.

Jeremy Bonderman (2-4) was roughed up for seven runs on a season-high 11 hits in 5 2-3 innings, after entering the game with a 1.80 ERA in his last six outings.

Betancourt's sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the sixth scored Alberto Callaspo, while Willie Bloomquist's run-producing single finished Bonderman.

Johnny Damon led off the Tigers' fourth with a single, the first hit off Bannister, stole second and scored on Magglio Ordonez's single.

The Tigers got another run off Bannister in the eighth, when Don Kelly led off with a double, went to third on a ground out and scored on a wild pitch.

Notes: C Alex Avila, who had two hits Saturday, started again for Detroit while C Gerald Laird sat on the bench. Laird is batting .154. “I'm going to play Alex more,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “I want to emphasize I'm not forgetting about Gerald Laird. He's going to play. It's just a matter I'm going to try Alex a little bit more for awhile and see if we can get a little more thunder down at the bottom.” ... The Royals finished their homestand 3-4. They are 12-19 this season at Kauffman Stadium.