Final Score: Kansas City 4 - Tampa Bay 1 St. Petersburg, FL (Sports Network) - Brian Bannister pitched eight innings of one-run, two-hit ball as the Kansas City Royals downed the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 4-1, to open a four-game series at Tropicana Field. Bannister (1-3), acquired in an offseason trade, retired the final 12 batters he faced. He struck out six and issued no walks while Emil Brown went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored for the Royals, who snapped a season-high seven game losing streak. "He was in command the whole game and really wasn't in any trouble," said Kansas City manager Buddy Bell about Bannister. "He was throwing strikes and had lost of confidence." Greg Norton homered and Scott Kazmir (3-3) was tagged with the loss for giving up three runs on eight hits in seven innings for the Devil Rays, who had won three of four coming into the game. "He had one bad inning," said Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon about Kazmir. "His numbers on the board were good. I thought his fastball command got better as the game progressed." The Royals took the lead in the second with three runs. Mike Sweeney led off the inning with a triple down the right field line and crossed the plate on a wild pitch from Kazmir. Brown then walked and stole second, but Ryan Shealy and Alex Gordon both struck out. However, Tony Pena kept the inning alive with a single to score Brown, Jason LaRue hit a single to center to put runners at the corners. Esteban German followed with a single to score Pena for a 3-0 lead. Tampa Bay got on the board in the fifth as Norton led off the frame by hitting the first pitch he saw over the right field wall. Kansas City tacked on an insurance run in the eighth as Brown doubled to center to score Mark Teahen, who led off the inning with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch. Octavio Dotel took over on the mound for KC in the ninth and got into trouble. He issued back-to-back walks to pinch-hitter Dioner Navarro and Brendan Harris, but got Elijah Dukes to foul out, B.J. Upton to look at strike three and Carl Crawford to fly out to end the game and pick up his first save of the season.