Bannister makes 1 stand up for Travs

Nathan Bannister's most efficient start gave the Arkansas Travelers their first shutout victory of the season, 1-0, over the Springfield Cardinals on Sunday afternoon at Dickey Stephens-Park in North Little Rock.

The 24-year-old right-hander threw a shutout in the first complete game of his two-year professional career.

Bannister (3-2, 4.54 ERA) entered the ninth inning having thrown 90 pitches, and he dispatched the final three batters after starting the inning with a walk. In total, he surrendered 4 hits with 1 walk and 3 strikeouts.

The Travs (18-17) won the five-game series with the Cardinals (19-16) four games to one, and the run that won Sunday's game was enabled by Cardinals' mistakes.

Travs center fielder Braden Bishop singled in the bottom of the fifth inning, moved to second on a wild pitch, to third after tagging on a flyout to center, then home on a mishandled grounder at third base.

Cardinals starting right-hander Jake Woodford (2-4, 4.81) took the loss with 1 unearned run in 6 innings, with 6 hits, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts.

"They made a mistake and we didn't," Travs Manager Daren Brown said. "In 1-0 games, that's generally what happens."

Mistakes also favored the Travs in their 4-3 victory over the Cardinals on Friday night, when Zach Shank scored the game-winning run by advancing twice on two wild pitches.

But like Chase De Jong's one-run, six-inning start Friday, Bannister's performance provided the opportunity for a victory.

It was the fourth time in Bannister's two-year career that he threw more than seven scoreless innings. The outing surpassed his previous record on July 5 when he pitched eight scoreless innings in a 2-0 victory over the Visalia Rawhide.

Bannister gave up 3 earned runs in a 5-2 loss to Northwest Arkansas on May 7, and he gave up 5 earned runs with 3 home runs the last time he faced the Cardinals -- a 6-2 loss on April 27.

"Pitching coach [Ethan Katz] and I just went back to the drawing board with what are my strengths as a pitcher," said Bannister, who was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 28th round of the 2016 MLB Draft out of the University of Arizona. "I fell into the trap of throwing at the thigh rather than at the knees to them. When guys hit me in the air, it's not a good thing. I like getting ground ball outs. That's kind of what I went back to, and I felt really comfortable going right back to that."

The Cardinals grounded out 13 times against Bannister -- nearly half of the 27 total outs recorded -- and seven consecutive batters grounded out from the fifth through the seventh innings.

That was during a span in which Bannister retired 11 consecutive batters.

"I thought he did a nice job of moving the ball around, throwing all his pitches for strikes," Brown said. "He pretty much kept the ball where he needed the whole day."

Sports on 05/14/2018