BOSTON -- The Royals entered the eighth inning on Monday night trailing the Red Sox by seven runs.
By the end of the frame, Vinnie Pasquantino was standing in the on-deck circle ready to hit for the second time after his solo home run began a comeback that threatened to upend the deficit completely.
He represented the go-ahead run. He never got the chance to hit.
Nick Loftin was thrown out at home trying to score from second on Bobby Witt Jr.’s hard-hit single into right field, ending the Royals’ rally in their 8-5 loss to the Red Sox on Monday at Fenway Park.
Loftin had doubled off the Green Monster, driving in one of four runs the Royals tallied in the eighth, and was standing at second base as the lineup turned over with two outs. Jonathan India walked, and Witt hit a one-hopper into right as Red Sox outfielder Wilyer Abreu came running in to meet it.
With two outs, Loftin was running almost as soon as the ball came off of Witt’s bat. But he was only stepping on third base when Abreu -- who possesses one of the strongest arms across baseball -- fielded the ball. Royals third-base coach Vance Wilson pointed back toward the bag, likely indicating Loftin to stop. The situation, with the Royals down three runs rather than a one-run or tie game, did not call for an aggressive play; better to have Pasquantino at the plate with the bases loaded rather than run into the third out.
But Loftin never stopped.
“Hit the bag, kept my head down because that’s usually what I do with two outs and [was] trying to score on a base hit,” Loftin told MLB.com. “Looked up, saw him put his hand up, and at that point, I just kind of kept going.”
Abreu unleashed a 95.8 mph throw that took Red Sox catcher Connor Wong up the third-base line and right in the path of Loftin, who was tagged out before he even got a chance to slide, colliding with Wong instead.
The Royals asked for a crew chief review to assess whether Wong had blocked Loftin’s path, but the original out call was confirmed.
Manager Matt Quatraro called the mistake a “mental” one and said that he talked to Loftin in the dugout afterward.
“You got to understand the game situation at that point,” Quatraro said. “He’s trying to be aggressive. Probably got a little carried away, knowing there were two outs. Normally you take chances with two outs, but when you’re down by three and you’re getting the go-ahead run to the plate right there, you got to stay at third.”
Loftin added: “[I was] being aggressive. Got lost in the present, and wasn’t really thinking about where we were at in the score. Won’t happen again. Should probably go through knowing the situation: We were down three runs. My run clearly doesn’t matter at that point.
“... It’s a rally killer, for sure.”
The fact that the Royals had even rallied to begin with was a positive on an otherwise ugly night, with the offense going 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and starter Bailey Falter allowing seven runs in four innings in his Royals debut.
That included five runs in the first inning.
“Tough one tonight,” Falter said. “Job is to go out there and set the tone for these guys. And I didn’t do my job. I’ll think about it tonight. Get with the pitching staff tomorrow, see what we can come up with and definitely try to be better next start.”
The Royals’ rally, despite it coming too late and ending in a brutal way, allowed them to at least get a look at the Red Sox high-leverage arms, with Jacob Wilson and Garrett Whitlock finishing the eighth and Aroldis Chapman notching the save in the ninth.
But yet another baserunning blunder led to the loss -- a loss they need to avoid this time of year, especially in a series like this. This three-game set in Boston has big American League Wild Card implications, as the red-hot Red Sox, who have won six consecutive games, are one of the teams who the Royals are chasing.
After Monday, the Red Sox (63-51) hold a 2 1/2 game lead over both the Mariners (60-53) and Yankees (60-53) for the second and third Wild Card spots. The Royals (56-57) are four games back of the third and final spot, with Cleveland (57-55) and Texas (59-55) also in the mix.
This series has tiebreaker implications, too, after the Red Sox took two of three over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium earlier this year.
But really, the message is simple: Kansas City needs to keep winning series to stay in the mix with just 49 games to play this year.
“Night one didn’t go the way we wanted,” Pasquantino said. “There were some small positives in there. There were some negatives in there. And we move on to tomorrow.”