Kansas City, Mo. ? Brian Bannister loves to look at stats, every aspect of his motion and needs to know precisely why something does or doesn’t work.

So when the Minnesota Twins started jumping on a certain pitch, Bannister put his analytical mind together with Royals catcher Jason Kendall to see if they could figure out how to get Minnesota’s lineup of bashers to back off.

They did and it kept Kansas City from being swept.

Changing to more sinkers and changeups, Bannister worked through a day of trouble to help Kansas City avoid a three-game sweep with a 4-3 victory over the Twins on Sunday.

“They kind of ambushed my cutter in the second inning and I didn’t really like that, so Jason and I talked about it and we really changed up how we pitched,” Bannister said after his first home win since July 5, 2009, against the White Sox. “It seemed to be effective the rest of the game.”