Banda twirls first complete-game shutout

Pitching in the hitter-friendly California League has been a new experience for Arizona southpaw Anthony Banda. On Sunday, he continued to learn about what it takes to succeed at that level.

Arizona's No. 25 prospect scattered five hits and a walk while striking out five batters over nine innings in the Visalia Rawhide's 3-0 win over the host Bakersfield Blaze at Sam Lynn Ballpark.

It was Banda's first complete-game shutout of his four-year professional career, which has included 50 starts and 16 relief appearances.

"I've never thrown a shutout before, so obviously it was a great one and I could not ask for more," he said. "As a team, we played very well and I had great defense behind me.

"By far, this is the best start of my career. Anybody will agree with me that if you throw a complete-game shutout or whatever, it'll be the best start of your career unless you have something better like a perfect game or something like that."

Banda (5-3) faced four batters about the minimum and didn't allow a runner to reach third base in tossing the first complete-game shutout on the circuit this year.

Selected by the Brewers in the 10th round of the 2012 Draft, he worked around a two-out walk to Tim Lopes in the first inning and a one-out single to Kyle Petty in the second before setting down the next eight batters.

Petty and Carlton Tanabe singled in the fifth, but Banda struck out Aaron Barbosa, and he rolled an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play to erase Rayder Ascanio's bunt single in the sixth.

Barbosa singled with two outs in the eighth, but the 21-year-old Texas native set down 10 of the final 11 batters he faced to complete the shutout.

"It was mainly a mix of everything, but you have to start by establishing the fastball and showing them you can throw to both sides of the plate and locate where you need to," Banda said. "I threw the curveball for strikes and expanded the zone when I needed to and made them chase the pitches I wanted them to. Everything was really spot-on and the fastball was what established everything.

"I threw the curveball in counts where we thought it would be good, such as 0-1 or 2-1, or in fastball counts to get them to roll over or pop it up or something. When I got back to even or ahead, I'd put them away with a fastball or expand the zone with a breaking ball."

The 6-foot-2 hurler has had mixed success in his first year at the new level. For every start in which he's posted zeros, there has been another in which he's allowed four or more runs.

After starting the year 3-0 with a 1.65 ERA in his first three outings, Banda then allowed 23 runs over his next six starts, including six runs over four innings in Rancho Cucamonga on May 5 and six more in Lake Elsinore on May 21, when he failed to make it out of the first inning.

Since then, things have been better. He spun five shutout innings against the Blaze on May 27 and allowed two earned runs -- five in total -- against Modesto on Monday.

"[It is] the tempo," Banda said of the difference between his good and bad starts. "Having a good tempo continuously and being aggressive and having confidence in what I can do and what I'm able to do. No matter what happens -- good, bad or indifferent -- I have to stay aggressive. I have to stay within myself and battle through and show the team I'm going to fight for [them]."

Visalia left fielder Alex Glenn went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, catcher Tyler Baker collected two hits and center fielder Breland Almadova contributed a run and an RBI out of the No. 9 spot.

Bakersfield starter Brett Ash (2-4) allowed three runs -- one earned -- on eight hits and a walk while striking out one batter over six innings.