Jose Guillen homered twice and Brian Bannister pitched 7 1/3 strong innings as the Kansas City Royals welcomed the Colorado Rockies to interleague play with a 9-2 victory on Friday.
Mike Aviles, Jason Kendall and David DeJesus added an RBI apiece for the Royals, who moved to 6-2 under new manager Ned Yost.
Guillen kicked off the scoring in the fourth when he followed Billy Butler's single with his homer off Rockies starter Jason Hammel (1-3). Guillen got to Hammel again with a solo blast leading off the seventh to move into a tie for fourth in the American League with 11 home runs.
The Royals ended up breaking it open after Guillen's second blast, knocking Hammel out with a four-run seventh. Kendall, Aviles and DeJesus each had RBI singles in the frame.
Bannister held the Rockies scoreless through seven innings before tiring in the eighth and allowing a leadoff single to Ian Stewart and a two-run homer to Clint Barmes.
Bannister (3-3) was charged with two runs on seven hits while walking one and striking out four to earn his second straight win.
Kansas City took advantage of a wild pitch, a passed ball and a sacrifice fly to push three more runs across in the eighth.
Troy Tulowitzki had a pair of hits for Colorado, which has lost four of five.
Colorado | Kansas City | |
Jason Hammel | Player | Brian Bannister |
Loss | W/L | Win |
6.2 | IP | 7.1 |
6 | Strikeouts | 4 |
6 | Hits | 7 |
6.75 | ERA | 2.45 |
Colorado | Kansas City | |
Troy Tulowitzki | Player | Jose Guillen |
2 | Hits | 2 |
0 | RBI | 3 |
0 | HR | 2 |
3 | TB | 8 |
.500 | Avg | 1.000 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
Colorado | 8 | 1 | 13 | .235 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Kansas City | 10 | 2 | 16 | .312 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 |