Sometimes, when you’re an expansion (read: bad) team, you need the other side to give you some breaks. On this day, the Senators were happy to oblige. The Royals took advantage of several Washington miscues in a 7-3 win at RFK Stadium.

Senators starter Jim Miles had no problems with the top of the Royals’ order in the first inning, but started the second by walking Ed Kirkpatrick. Bob Oliver followed with a single, but Jerry Adair bounced into a double play. However, Miles helped out the Royals by hitting Ellie Rodriguez with a pitch. Jackie Hernandez tripled for two runs. Dick Drago hit a grounder to third, but Ken McMullen made a bad throw, and Hernandez scored the third run of the inning.

Washington continued to give the Royals free baserunners in the third. After Joe Keough led off with a single, Miles walked Mike Fiore and Kirkpatrick to load the bases. Bob Humphreys took over on the mound for Miles, but Oliver singled to right field. Keough scored, and Fiore also came in to score when right fielder Lee Maye couldn’t field the ball cleanly. Kirkpatrick reached third, and scored although Adair hit into another double play. After all that, the Royals held a 6-0 lead.

Kansas City added another unearned run in the fourth. Keough reached on a throwing error by shortstop Ed Brinkman. He stole second and scored on a Kirkpatrick single.

Meanwhile, Drago was working on a shutout through four innings, helped by a couple of double plays behind him. However, Washington scored two runs in the fifth on an Ed Stroud single. But Drago got another double play to end the inning, then held the Senators at bay until they scored an unearned run in the ninth.

The win moved the Royals to 47-68 on the season. They were in fourth place in the AL West, 21.5 games behind Minnesota.

Box score and play-by-play: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/WS2/WS2196908130.shtml

Today’s birthdays: Tom Prince (1964), Roman Colon (1979), Jonah Bayliss (1980)