What Royals’ Dairon Blanco said about crucial baserunning mistake in loss to Mariners

The Kansas City Royals and Kauffman Stadium were on the brink of another walkoff celebration — for the second straight night — on Tuesday against the Seattle Mariners.

Salvador Perez connected with a 98 mph heater up in the zone from Mariners closer Andrés Muñoz, knocking the ball over the head of shortstop José Caballero and into shallow left field. Royals fans cheered as shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. rounded third base and sprinted home to knot the score at 8-apiece.

But the Royals’ momentum came to a complete halt on the same play in an eventual 10-8 loss.

Pinch runner and outfielder Dairon Blanco, who was running from first to third, was tagged out. He didn’t make an attempt to slide into third — and had he held up at second, the Royals would’ve had a runner in scoring position with the inning continuing.

The run scored — completing a comeback aided by a Witt grand slam, one night after his first inside-the-park home run — but the Mariners pulled ahead and won in the 10th.

After the loss, Blanco was upset with himself and said, through a club translator, that if he had slid the outcome might’ve been different.

“I feel like it cost (us) the ballgame and I feel terrible,” Blanco said through a translator. “I was just trying to get to third base and my goal was to get there. And I made a mistake.”

Manager Matt Quatraro agreed that Blanco should’ve slid into the bag.

During the play, third base coach Vance Wilson was on his knees, appearing to call for a slide. He then laid down and signaled even more demonstrably for it a split second before Mariners third baseman Eugenio Suárez tagged Blanco.

Quatraro said he didn’t see Wilson but thought Blanco’s decision to go to third meant “he’s got to go as hard as he can, slide, and maybe the ball hits him in the back or whatever and gets away.”

“When the ball was hit, I didn’t think he was going to go to third,” Quatraro said. “But with his feet, if he goes, you know, and he goes all the way, I’m pretty sure he’s going to make it.”

After producing the walk-off bunt on Monday and enduring a low point on Tuesday, Blanco is focused on resetting and preparing for Wednesday’s contest.

“(I’m) having a hard time with it because we could’ve won the game, you know, with a walkoff again and just didn’t happen,” Blanco said. “(I’m) just going to try to get home and watch a movie and relax and bounce back tomorrow.”