A mad dash from first base to home plate on Salvador Perez’s first-inning double
on Friday took nearly all of the oxygen the first baseman had in his body. So
when he was ruled safe for the Royals’ first run in their eventual  Â at Kauffman
Stadium, he laid in the dirt for just a second, catching his breath before
hopping up and heading to the dugout for high fives.
“I was about out of gas,†Pasquantino said. “I didn’t lay there because I wanted to.â€
Pasquantino might not be what one would call a traditional “speed guy,†of course, but it’s been somewhat of a
talking point over the past week or so after Under Armor sent him some new
cleats. A new model that’s apparently “lighter†and makes him “faster,†he said — with only a hint of sarcasm. On
Monday night against the Angels, Pasquantino scored from first — on another Perez double into the left-field
corner — after telling manager Matt Quatraro right before the game about the new cleats.
After Pasquantino knocked a base hit with two outs in the bottom of the first inning on Friday, Perez laced a double
down the third-base line. With two outs, Pasquantino was running on contact,
and when the ball shot past diving third baseman Alec Bohm and into the
outfield, the 6-foot-4, 245-pound slugger put his head down and ran as fast as he could.
Pasquantino was rounding third by the time left fielder Austin Hays retrieved the ball in the corner of the outfield.
Third-base coach Vance Wilson started waving Pasquantino home, which was
probably a good thing considering Pasquantino might not have been able to stop anyway.
“I wasn’t watching the ball, because I’m slow to begin with, [so] if I start watching what else is going on, and not just
[Wilson], I get even slower,†Pasquantino said. “He was running down the line with me, and I told him after, ‘If you
would have put up a late stop sign, I was running through it because there was no
shot I was going to be able to turn around.’â€
