If all goes as the Kansas City Royals would like, the best game of Dairon Blanco’s career will be looked back upon as a main reason the Royals snapped their playoff drought this fall.

The Royals will aim to complete a series sweep of the host Cincinnati Reds on Sunday afternoon when the teams meet in the finale of the three-game interleague set.

Right-hander Brady Singer (8-8, 3.32 ERA) is slated to start for the Royals against Reds left-hander Andrew Abbott (10-9, 3.59).

Blanco took advantage of a rare start Saturday night, when he set career highs with two homers and seven RBIs in leading the Royals to a 13-1 win.

The start was the first since Aug. 4 for Blanco, a 31-year-old reserve outfielder who entered Saturday with 21 stolen bases but just one homer and five RBIs in 97 at-bats this season. He exceeded those latter two totals in the first three innings by hitting a two-run homer in the second and a grand slam during a seven-run third.

Blanco added an RBI single in the fourth to become just the second ninth-place hitter to collect seven RBIs in a game in team history. Catcher Jerry Grote had seven RBIs in a 12-9 win over the Seattle Mariners on June 3, 1981.

Blanco also finished two RBIs shy of the franchise record set by Mike Moustakas in a 14-6 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Sept. 12, 2015.

The unlikely outburst allowed the Royals to lessen the load — at least for one night — on their big three of Vinnie Pasquantino, Salvador Perez and American League MVP candidate Bobby Witt Jr. The trio went 5-for-12 with two RBIs on Saturday night and have a combined 65 homers and 260 RBIs for Kansas City, which leads the Boston Red Sox by 2 1/2 games in the race for the final American League wild-card spot.

The Royals haven’t made the playoffs since they won the World Series in 2015.

“That’s what good teams do: They rely on the whole team,” Pasquantino said. “And everybody here knows their role and Blanco filled in and did his job tonight. It was incredible. We need more of that if we want to get where we want to go.”

The lopsided loss capped a day in which the Reds’ path to the playoffs grew far more difficult. Ace Hunter Greene, who was named to his first All-Star team this season, was placed on the injured list with a sore right elbow hours before Nick Lodolo allowed eight runs in a season-low 2 1/3 innings.

President of baseball operations Nick Krall said the injured list stint was done “…for precautionary reasons.” Greene, who underwent Tommy John surgery in 2019, entered Saturday third in the NL with a 2.83 ERA and tied for fifth with 162 strikeouts.

The Reds fell five games behind the Atlanta Braves in the race for the final National League wild-card spot by virtue of their loss and the Braves’ 11-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels.

“We’re in position to do something, stay in the hunt,” Lodolo said. “I didn’t give us a chance to do that tonight. I’ve got to be that guy, to go out there and win the game.”

Singer took the loss in his most recent start Monday, when he gave up six runs over five innings as the Royals fell to the Minnesota Twins 8-3. He didn’t factor into the decision in his lone start against the Reds on July 7, 2021, when he allowed one run over six-plus innings in Cincinnati’s 5-1 victory.

Abbott earned the win Monday after surrendering one run over 6 2/3 innings as the Reds beat the St. Louis Cardinals 6-1. He has never opposed the Royals.

–Field Level Media