A growing series of base-running gaffes prompted an on-field review Friday by manager Trey Hillman prior to the start of the club’s regular pre-game batting practice.</p><p> The Royals gathered around Hillman, who delivered an animated assessment near first base, after the club’s regular once-a-homestand session of pitchers’ fielding practice.</p><p> “We’ve made some costly base-running mistakes that we can’t afford to make,” he said. “So we made sure we covered those collectively. They’re always covered individually, but we made sure we covered them with the whole group.”</p><p> The Royals ran themselves into double plays in the first two innings of Thursday’s 4-1 loss to the White Sox by breaking too far from first base on routine fly balls to the outfield. </p><p> Hillman said those mistakes left him “as disappointed as any manager who’s not putting wins on the board. Because that’s my job. You want me to put it on a 1-10 scale? I’ll put it at a 10 because it affects how we play baseball games and how we’re perceived as a major-league club.</p><p> “Mistakes don’t need to be repetitive in back-to-back innings. Hopefully, they never happen, but when you make base-running mistakes, you correct them and move on.”</p><p> Hillman parried a question asking whether the mistakes indicated a greater malaise setting in on a club that entered Friday with just 15 victories in its last 49 games.</p><p> “Base-running mistakes like that,” he said, “are indicative of any problem that keeps you from winning a ballgame. It’s all part of it. It all turns into a negative in the offensive flow of an inning.</p><p> “When you’re challenged to score runs at the rate we’ve been challenged to score runs this season, it has an effect.”</p><p><b>International signings</b></p><p> The Royals confirmed the signings of two 16-year-old prospects from Latin America in the international signing period: third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert of Nicaragua and catcher Luis Villegas of Venezuela.</p><p> The international signing period began Thursday for players not subject to the first-year player draft.</p><p> Cuthbert, at 6 feet 1 and 185 pounds, is believed to have received a signing bonus in excess of $1.2 million.</p><p> “We think he’s going to be a special player,” said Rene Francisco, who heads the organization’s international operations. “He’s going to play a solid third base and hit and hit with power.</p><p> “He has to finish high school in Nicaragua. From there, he’ll go to the Instructional League (in September).”</p><p> Francisco cited part-time scout Juan Lopez and Latin America scouting supervisor Orlando Estevez as instrumental in the club’s ability to sign Cuthbert.</p><p> Villegas is 5-10 and 170 and projects as a line-drive hitter. He will report immediately to the organization’s year-round complex in the Dominican Republic. <b>Lineup change</b></p><p> Willie Bloomquist was a late scratch as the starting third baseman when he left the ballpark to attend to a family emergency.</p><p> When Hillman opted to stick with plans to rest regular third baseman Mark Teahen, the starting lineup included Tony Peña and Luis Hernandez for the first time.</p><p> Hillmans said Teahen should return today to the lineup.</p><p> “I could have forced the issue (Friday),” Hillman said, “but I was afraid that we’d go farther backward. We’ve had our share of going backward with injuries. He’s just a little sore, a little banged up.”</p><p> Bloomquist’s status for today’s game is uncertain.</p><p><b>Updating Buck</b></p><p> Rehabbing catcher John Buck could return to active duty as soon as today if he experiences no problems in his recovery from a herniated disk after catching successive games at Class AAA Omaha.