Ed Kirkpatrick’s home run in the bottom of the eighth gave the Royals a 3-2 win over the Washington Senators at Municipal Stadium.

Kansas City was trailing 2-1 as they came to bat in the eighth. Washington starter Joe Coleman was still on the mound, having allowed just six hits, although he had also issued four walks. Coleman got two quick outs, but Joe Foy kept the inning alive with a single. Kirkpatrick then hit a Coleman offering over the right-field fence, his seventh homer of the year.

Royals starter Jim Rooker worked a perfect ninth to finish off his complete-game victory. Rooker continued a string of strong performances by limiting Washington to six hits and one walk while striking out five. In nine starts since July 7, Rooker had a 2.17 ERA over 66 1/3 innings, with 44 strikeouts and 23 walks. Over that span, he had held opposing hitters to a .492 OPS.

Despite that, the Senators scored first, with two runs in the fourth. With one out, Tim Cullen doubled. Frank Howard followed with a triple, and Ken McMullen hit a sacrifice fly to bring him in.

The Royals answered in the bottom of the inning. With two outs, Kirkpatrick singled. He scored on Jerry Adair’s double. But the Royals would only have two more hits until the eighth inning.

With the win, the Royals improved to 51-71 on the season. They were in third place in the AL West, 21.5 games behind Minnesota.

Box score and play-by-play: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KCA/KCA196908220.shtml

Today’s birthdays: Hipolito Pichardo (1969), Dusty Wathan (1973), Hunter Dozier (1991)