An early lead went for naught as the Royals dropped a 5-4 loss to the Seattle Pilots at Sick’s Stadium in Seattle.
The Royals led 4-1 after the top of the third. Although Pat Kelly doubled off Seattle starter Gene Brabender to start the game, he was stranded at second. But in the second inning, Joe Foy led off with a walk, stole second, and took third on Jerry Adair’s one-out single. A Jackie Hernandez sacrifice bunt scored Foy. With two outs, Kelly tripled to drive in two runs.
After Seattle scored one run off Royals starter Bill Butler, on a Ray Oyler double, Kansas City came back with one run in the third. Ed Kirkpatrick led off with a bunt single, reached second on a groundout, and scored on a Foy single.
However, the Pilots got back in the game in the bottom of the third. With two outs, Danny Walton and Greg Goossen hit back-to-back solo home runs, cutting the KC lead to 4-3.
The Royals had a double in the fourth (Kelly again), and singles in the fifth and sixth, but could not score. Gus Gil led off the Seattle seventh with a double, and Moe Drabowsky took over for Butler. A sacrifice bunt moved Gil to third, but Drabowsky lost his control and walked Steve Hovley and Mike Hegan. Walton hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game, and Goossen singled to give Seattle the lead.
Pilots reliever Bob Locker earned his 10th save by retiring all six batters he faced, all by groundout.
With the loss, the Royals fell to 55-81. They were in fourth place in the AL West, 28 games behind Minnesota.
Box score and play-by-play: https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SE1/SE1196909050.shtml
Today’s birthdays: Dave Morehead (1942), Brian Bevil (1971)
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