NewsKC can't solve Carpenter, Pujols
Bannister tosses quality start, but bats struggle in loss
By Dick Kaegel / MLB.com
06/20/09 10:15 PM ET
KANSAS CITY -- There's no holding back Albert Pujols. And there's no figuring out Chris Carpenter. Not for the Royals, it seems.Pujols ripped a two-run homer and Carpenter pitched masterfully in the St. Louis Cardinals' 7-1 victory over the Royals on Saturday. The game drew a sellout crowd of 38,769, largest at Kauffman Stadium since Opening Day 2007.
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"Their ace outpitched me, and the best hitter in the league beat me," Royals starter Brian Bannister said. "But at the end of the game, we still had a chance to win, and I've got to be satisfied with that today."
Bannister pitched splendidly, but the Cardinals put the game out of reach against the bullpen with a four-run ninth inning capped by Khalil Greene's three-run homer.
After being retired twice by Bannister, Pujols came up in the sixth inning with Skip Schumaker on base. On Bannister's first pitch, Pujols sent a bazooka shot 402 feet over the left-field fence, his 24th home run this year.
Royals manager Trey Hillman described the pitch to Pujols as a hanging slider. Not quite.
"It's my cut fastball," Bannister said. "Albert hits good pitches hard and bad pitches even harder. And when he gets in the batter's box, if you pray, then you start praying. And if you don't pray, you think about starting."
Whatever entreaties might have gone skyward, so did Pujols' 12th career homer against the Royals and his 10th in 26 games at Kauffman.
"This is home for me," Pujols said. "In the offseason, I spend a lot of time here. So it's always good to play in front of a lot of family and friends. It's always good to come, I wish we could come a little bit more often."
No kidding.
The only other run off Bannister was unearned in the third inning. Rick Ankiel led off with a single and took second on right fielder Jose Guillen's error. Ankiel scored on Brendan Ryan's single up the middle.
Carpenter, rebounding superbly from arm surgery, improved his record to 5-1 and lowered his ERA to 1.53. He gave up just three hits in his 7 2/3 innings. In his career, he's 5-5 against the Royals, with all five wins coming at Kauffman.
After retiring nine straight batters, Carpenter gave up a two-out double to Mitch Maier in the eighth, and his 3-0 lead was inherited by lefty Trever Miller. David DeJesus walked, and with Willie Bloomquist batting for Luis Hernandez, the Cardinals switched to righty closer Ryan Franklin.
Bloomquist lined a single to center, scoring Maier. That brought up Billy Butler with two runners on and Franklin protecting a two-run lead.
"I had a chance to change the game in the eighth and go out in front, and I've got to do better than that," Butler said. "Ultimately, I've got to hit the ball hard, and I didn't do that."
But Butler was on safely when shortstop Tyler Greene botched a soft bouncer, loading the bases for Mike Jacobs. Jacobs battled Franklin to a 3-2 count but flied out to center.
"It's frustrating to have a guy come out and pitch like Banny did and we can't score enough runs for him," Jacobs said. "We put ourselves in a situation there in the eighth to have a shot at it, and obviously I didn't get it done."
At that point, Bannister still felt strong, but Hillman switched to reliever Kyle Farnsworth.
"I think if Albert wasn't leading off the ninth, I would've gone for the complete game, because I was at 86 pitches," Bannister said. "But I thought it was smarter to bring in somebody that had a better chance of punching him out."
Farnsworth did indeed strike out Pujols, but he then gave up successive singles to Ryan Ludwick, Chris Duncan and Yadier Molina for the fourth St. Louis run. That brought lefty John Bale out of the bullpen to strike out Ankiel but, ouch, also to surrender the three-run shot to Greene.
"That's how we're rolling, unfortunately, right now," Hillman said. "He's hitting a buck-50 off left-handers."
So the Royals took their fourth straight loss, by a combined score of 41-16 no less, after rallying Kansas City hopes with four straight victories.
At least this time the Royals were in it right up to the last inning. The sellout crowd, which waited out a one-hour, 30-minute rain delay at the start, was up and roaring in the sunshine.
"All you needed to hear was the intensity of the fans in the bottom of that eighth inning," Bannister said.
"It was a fun environment, the fans were into it and it came down to Franklin making a good 3-2 pitch. I was excited and I was up to the rail, which I don't usually do, but I was really into the game. It's a big rivalry, and it was a lot of fun to me."
Except for a couple of guys wearing redbirds on their chests.
"When I started the day, I wanted it to be close," Bannister said. "I knew I was going up against Carpenter and Pujols, and at the end, we had a chance to win, and that's all you can do today."
Dick Kaegel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
