The Royals lost their third straight game, dropping a 5-3 decision to the Red Sox on Tuesday night at Fenway Park in Boston.

Kansas City did get the first two runs of the game, scoring against Boston rookie starter Don Aase in the third inning. Frank White started that inning with a single and stole second. Tom Poquette doubled to drive in White. With one out, Amos Otis singled and the Royals had a 2-0 lead.

Jim Rice collected Boston’s first hit of the game, leading off the fourth against Royals starter Mark Littell with a double. Littell struck out the next two batters, but George Scott singled and Butch Hobson hit a three-run home run into the screen above the Green Monster, giving Boston the lead.

Aase retired 11 of 12 after the Otis single, with the one exception being an error on shortstop Rick Burleson in the sixth. But Cookie Rojas led off the seventh with a single, although he was forced out on Freddie Patek’s ground ball. White doubled to score Patek and tie the game. Reliever Bill Campbell took over for Aase and uncorked a wild pitch that moved White to third, but struck out Poquette and Hal McRae to end the inning with the score still 3-3.

Doug Bird took over for Littell to start the seventh and immediately found trouble as Hobson led off with a single. Dwight Evans bunted him to second, and Denny Doyle singled to advance Hobson to third. Burleson’s single brought in the lead run, and Fred Lynn’s sacrifice fly gave Boston a 5-3 advantage.

From there, Campbell would retire the next six hitters, closing out the game and earning his 21st save of the year.

With the loss, the Royals fell to 64-51. Minnesota and Chicago also lost, but Texas won, so the AL West standings found the Twins on top, with the White Sox and Rangers both a half-game out of first. The Royals were still two games out.

Box score and play-by-play:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS197708160.shtml

1977 news: The King is dead. In Memphis, rock legend Elvis Presley was found unconscious on the floor of his bathroom at Graceland about 2:30 pm. An ambulance took him to Baptist Memorial Hospital, but efforts to revive him failed, as he probably had been dead for an hour or more. Elvis was only 42 years old.

Today’s birthdays: Rick Reed (1964), Terry Shumpert (1966), Damian Jackson (1973), Martin Maldonado (1986), Justin Grimm (1988)