Teahen's bat backs Bannister as Royals roll over Twins

Royals 5, Twins 1

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Mark Teahen and Brian Bannister both took credit for the lights going off.

Teahen had four hits for his third straight multihit game and Bannister won his third straight decision as the Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins 5-1 on Tuesday night.

The game was delayed 36 minutes in the eighth inning when a bank of lights in right field went dark soon after Teahen doubled.

He said it was like Roy Hobb's long fly ball in "The Natural" that knocked out the stadium lights.

"I think that was it," Teahen said, grinning, although his double went down the left-field line.

Bannister took credit for the outage in a different way.

"I flipped the wrong switch in the bathroom," he said.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire was asked if the power outage bothered the Twins.

"We haven't hit a home run in a while," he said with a straight face. "Oh, you're not talking about that. My bad."

The Twins have not homered since the second inning on July 31.

Teahen went 4-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI and is 9-for-13 in his past three games. He tied his career high with the four hits, doing it for the sixth time, and second this season.

"Day-to-day you're always messing with something," Teahen said of his swing. "Hopefully, I can ride this one for a while."

Bannister is 3-0 with a 1.61 ERA in his past four starts, allowing 23 hits and five earned runs in 28 innings. Bannister lowered his overall ERA to 3.32, which ranks second among American League rookies to Baltimore's Jeremy Guthrie (2.98).

Bannister (8-6) allowed one run and six hits -- four doubles -- in seven innings. He pitched out of trouble in the second and third innings when Luis Rodriguez and Jason Bartlett grounded into double plays.

"I didn't try to trick them," Bannister said. "I didn't want to waste anything. I went right after them with a lot of fastballs and as a result I gave up some long doubles. I wasn't trying to pitch around them or nibble. I think we did a good job of keeping my fielders off their feet and kept the defense active and really not letting the heat get to us, which I think helps. It was hot, like pitching in a sauna out there."

It was 94 degrees for the first pitch with the heat index at 104.

"I know they were frustrated the night before," Bannister said. "[Cleveland's] Paul Byrd got to them [shutting out the Twins] and I was trying to take advantage of that, hoping guys were still frustrated."

The Royals took a 1-0 lead in the first on consecutive two-out hits by Teahen, Billy Butler and Ross Gload.

The Twins tied it in the second on consecutive doubles by Justin Morneau and Torii Hunter, who drove in his 90th run. Morneau, the 2006 AL MVP, had two doubles, snapping an 0-for-17 skid.

David DeJesus led off the Kansas City third with a double and advanced to third on an error by Michael Cuddyer when he had trouble picking up the ball in right field. DeJesus scored on Mark Grudzielanek's sacrifice fly.

DeJesus and Teahen had RBI doubles in the fifth off Boof Bonser (5-8) to make it 4-1.

"It's not a very good game for us," Gardenhire said. "Bonser battled pretty good after he'd given up the four runs. He stayed in there for a couple extra innings. Our offense just isn't going right now."

Bonser, who is 0-6 in 10 starts since a June 10 victory over Washington, gave up four runs and nine hits. He struck out three and walked none.

"I've just go to do my job and not worry about what we're doing with the bats," Bonser said.

Morneau fouled a ball off his right shin in his last at-bat and did not come back out after the power outage as a precaution to prevent it from tightening up.

"It was swelling up then we had the delay," Gardenhire said. "We'll see how he feels tomorrow. He's a pretty tough guy."

Game notes
Royals DH Mike Sweeney, who had arthrosocpic surgery on his right knee on July 4, is taking batting practice, but is not expected to be activated for at least two weeks. ... Twins DH Rondell White started for the first time since July 30 and had an infield single in the second. ... The Twins have scored 72 runs, the fewest in the majors, since the All-Star break.