Royals split series with Red Sox, win finale

BOSTON (AP) Billy Butler hit a three-run homer and Luke Hochevar pitched seven strong innings Thursday to lead the Kansas City Royals to a 4-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox. Hochevar (7-8) allowed two runs on six hits and a walk while matching his season high for strikeouts with six. He retired 14 of the last 16 batters he faced and gave up just one extra-base hit, a third inning double by Yamaico Navarro. Hochevar left with a 4-2 lead, and Dustin Pedroia led off the eighth with a high home run over the Green Monster on a 3-2 pitch from Greg Holland. But Holland got Adrian Gonzalez, Kevin Youkilis and David Ortiz on groundouts to end the inning, and Joakim Soria came on to pitch the ninth.