Robinson Cano has costly, embarrassing baserunning blunder

By all accounts, Seattle Mariners second baseman Robinson Cano appears to be a smart player with a high baseball IQ. Unfortunately for the struggling Mariners, that IQ briefly eluded Cano on Wednesday night.

Trailing 5-2 in the sixth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Mariners were threatening with Cano on third, Nelson Cruz on second and just one out. Logan Morrison then worked a walk off Dodgers reliever Paco Rodriguez when Cano inexplicably started casually jogging toward home. The great Vin Scully aptly described the scene above.

The only explanation is that Cano thought the bases were already loaded and he’d just been walked in. The baserunning blunder proved costly, too. Instead of having the bases loaded with one out and the go-ahead run coming to the plate, the Mariners instead had runners on first and second with two out. The next batter was Mike Zunino, who promptly grounded into a fielder’s choice.

“Robby just thought the bases were loaded,” Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon told the Associated Press. “We got in the way of our talents, there’s no question about that.”

The Dodgers held on for a 5-2 win and completed a three-game sweep of the Mariners, who fell to 3-6.

The Cano mistake was a unique, rarely seen event but brings back memories of other baseball blunders, notably every time a player forgets how many outs there are. The most memorable is perhaps Larry Walker, who, as a member of the Montreal Expos in 1994, made a catch near the foul line then gave the ball to a fan, not realizing it was only the second out. That game was also against the Dodgers in L.A. Maybe it’s something in the Dodger Stadium water?

Courtesy of MLB, here’s a list of 10 players who forgot how many outs there were. Cano now feels their pain.

More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:

Ian Denomme is an editor and writer for Yahoo Sports. Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.