After the Royals and Red Sox traded single runs in the 10th inning, Boston took a 4-2 walkoff win on Dalton Jones’s home run in the 11th inning at Fenway Park.
Jones’s homer made a loser out of Moe Drabowsky, who dropped to 4-5 on the season. Drabowsky had entered the game to pitch the 11th inning and got the first man out, but Dick Schofield hit a ground-rule double that bounced into the seats near the right-field foul pole. Jones followed with a home run into the same area to give the Red Sox the win.
The home run was out of character for this game, which had been a well-pitched affair by both starters. Kansas City’s Bill Butler worked 10 innings, allowing just five hits. He struck out seven and didn’t walk anyone. Meanwhile, Boston’s Ray Culp, who had scattered seven hits in a complete game win over the Royals nine days earlier, again allowed seven hits over nine innings. He struck out six and walked one.
Boston scored in the first inning, as Carl Yastrzemski doubled with two outs and scored on Reggie Smith’s single. Kansas City did not tie the score until the fourth, when Mike Fiore homered.
Butler retired eight straight hitters after the Smith single. And after Smith tripled with one out in the fourth, he set down 14 straight batters. Meanwhile, Culp caught a break when Lou Piniella doubled to start the fifth but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple. Pat Kelly followed with a single but was eventually caught stealing to end the inning.
The Royals and Butler survived a leadoff double by Schofield in the ninth, then scored the go-ahead run in the 10th. With Culp still in the game, Fiore, Joe Foy, and Ed Kirkpatrick started the inning with singles to load the bases with no outs. Reliever Vicente Romo retired Piniella on a short fly ball, and reliever Sparky Lyle got Hawk Taylor to ground into a forceout at home. But Jerry Adair delivered a single that scored Foy for a 2-1 lead.
Butler got the first two outs in the bottom of the inning before George Scott homered to tie the score again. Kansas City did nothing in the 11th, and Jones finished the game in the bottom of the inning.
The loss dropped the Royals to 22-29 on the season. They were in fifth place in the AL West, seven games behind Minnesota.
Box score and play-by-play: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS196906060.shtml
Today’s birthdays: Edgar Caceres (1964), Tony Graffanino (1972), Jeremy Affeldt (1979), Irving Falu (1983)
U.L.'s Toothpick 