KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Giants met the media for 45 minutes the day before this World Series began, answering just about anything thrown their way. When the session was over, every player but one walked in a line back toward the field.

Gregor Blanco headed straight for Section 106 in left field. He couldn’t quite remember which seat he was looking for, but that exact view of Kauffman Stadium’s checkered grass is one he has never forgotten.

In 2010, Blanco, hit .310 in a cameo with the Braves and .274 after a trade to the lowly Royals. Blanco hoped the following spring would end with a trip to Kansas City, and technically it did. He was sent back to Triple-A, with the first stop in early April being Kauffman Stadium for a Futures Game against the Double-A squad.

Blanco hit an inside-the-park homer that day, but that’s not what he remembers. Before the minor leaguers took the field, Blanco, already 27, sat in the stands with top prospects barely out of high school. He watched the Royals big leaguers take on the Angels, baffled and saddened that he wasn’t in the dugout.

“I was sitting there watching my career pass me by,” Blanco said Monday. “I thought my career was about to end, and I felt like my future was taken away from me. But I used that game as motivation. It gave me a lot of spirit to get where I am.”

Three years later, Blanco has been one of many contributors to a run that has the Giants one win away from a third title in five seasons.

Twenty-four hours before he reached base three times and scored twice in a Game 1 win, Blanco grabbed the Giants’ Spanish-language broadcaster, Erwin Higueros, and looked for that view emblazoned in his mind. He sat down in a dark blue seat in Section 106, looked out at the empty stadium and asked Higueros to snap a photo with his cell phone.

“It makes you realize what you accomplished since that moment here,” he said.

Quietly producing

What Blanco has done this month has mostly flown under the radar. He has allowed the Giants to temporarily forget the absence of Angel Pagan, the $40 million man who had back surgery in September. The Giants were just 32-39 without Pagan in the starting lineup this season, but they have won 11 of 15 October games. Blanco has been brilliant defensively, and after a slow start at the plate, he has seven hits, six walks and nine runs over the past seven games. The Giants are 5-1 this postseason when Blanco scores a run.

“He’s a guy that’s one of our catalysts,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s a guy that it seems like, when he goes, we really go. It’s a nice luxury to have when you’ve lost Pagan and you have a guy that can fill that void.”

The Giants have always had trouble filling Pagan’s role when he goes down, and Bochy considered Blanco and Hunter Pence for the leadoff spot as the postseason approached. He wanted Pence in the heart of the order and stuck with Blanco as he worked to find his footing in the early rounds.

“You’re getting some negative criticism, but he handled that well, and he kept working,” Bochy said. “He finally started settling down and finding ways to get on base for us, and that takes mental toughness. This kid has been through it.”

It’s hard to find Blanco without a smile on his face these days. Before games, he spends time on the field with his 4-year-old son, Gregor, who comes to the park in full uniform. That includes one of Blanco’s No. 7 jerseys with “Daddy” stitched in place of the last name. After games, Blanco, a Venezuelan native, has been a patient go-to for reporters looking for thoughts in English and Spanish.

A spark in center

It’s during the games, however, that Blanco is having the most fun. He playfully waves his fellow outfielders off as he chases down everything hit anywhere close to him in the outfield. He claps his hands toward the dugout after every walk and hit, eager to replicate the energy Pagan brought to the leadoff spot.

“I’m a guy that really loves what I do,” he said, smiling widely.

That mentality has allowed Blanco to get past the dark times earlier in his career and the occasional speed bump with the Giants. Not long after that day in the stands in Kansas City, Blanco found himself stuck in the minors with the Royals and then the Washington Nationals, contemplating the possibility of finding a new profession. He couldn’t figure out what he would do without the game.

After joining the Giants as a free agent in 2012, Blanco filled in ably for a suspended Melky Cabrera down the stretch, but he has never been given a full-time role. He was in a platoon with Andres Torres last year and backed up Michael Morse and Pagan this season before injuries took a toll. The lack of a consistent role has never bothered Blanco.

“I’m a guy that plays for my manager and my teammates and my coaches,” he said. “If that means I should be in the lineup or shouldn’t be in the lineup, that’s Bochy’s decision. That’s how I see it. I just try to contribute any way I can. If you’re not playing, you cheer guys on from the bench and pull for them. When you’re playing, you do your best to be a part of it, too.

“Really, just to be able to be in this clubhouse is huge for me.”

It certainly beats the left field seats.

For more on the Giants, see Alex Pavlovic’s Giants Extra blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/Giants. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/AlexPavlovic.