Brian Bannister Bests Stephen Strasburg As Royals Clip Nationals

Strasburg went six innings against an admittedly weak Royal offense on Wednesday, throwing 95 pitches while allowing nine singles and one run. The other numbers:

Kansas City did a better job of making contact against Strasburg than his previous opponents, but for his part, he allowed zero walks for the third time in four starts and just pounded the zone, further answering any lingering questions about his command. He’ll never have the best location in the world, but he’s not a hot mess. He’s very, very good.

Guillen finished with two hits and extended his hitting streak to 18 games, while DeJesus also had a pair of hits for Kansas City, which snapped a five- game slide.

Strasburg (2-1) was saddled with his first major league loss in making his fourth career start. The rookie right-hander worked six innings, allowing one run on nine hits and fanning nine without issuing a walk. He threw 95 pitches, 75 for strikes.

“It means a lot,” Willingham said of his 100th homer. “I’m sure it’ll mean more when I look back at my career and I’m done playing. You never set a goal to hit a number of home runs, but to get to 100 is pretty cool.”

“We’re getting guys on and not able to close it,” Podsednik said. “I don’t know if we’re tightening up in those situations, maybe over thinking it a little bit and trying to do to much instead of staying up the middle and trying to settle with a base hit. All we can do is keep swinging it.”