NEW YORK — Starling Marte doesn’t make many mistakes in the outfield. But in the Mets’ 11-7 loss to the Royals on Saturday, the two-time Gold Glove Award winner made a blunder that potentially cost his team the game.

It happened in the top of the fourth inning. Bobby Witt Jr. hit a high fly ball to right field that Marte expertly tracked and settled under. Unfortunately for Marte, Witt Jr.’s batted ball event, which Statcast calculates to have had a .030 expected batting average, bounced off the two-time Gold Glove Award winner’s glove and rolled to the corner in right field.

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“I failed,” Marte told reporters from his locker in Citi Field. “I closed the glove before securing the ball and that’s just how it played out.”

It should have been the second out in the inning for Sean Manaea, who was looking to keep the game tied at four. Instead, it started a rally for Kansas City, who scored four runs, giving them an 8-4 lead.

Manaea doesn’t blame Marte’s error for the loss, his first of the season.

“Stuff happens,” the 6-foot-5 left-hander said. “You gotta get back out there and do your job, and unfortunately I wasn’t able to do that. So that’s on me.”

Still, Marte didn’t make excuses. Despite swirling winds blowing garbage all over the field, he feels he should have made the catch — “Even if there was a tornado, I have to make that play,” he said.

Because of this, Marte apologized to Manaea for his gaffe.

“When you have a pitcher like Sean (Manaea), who you can approach after the inning and say, ‘My bad,” you do that,” Marte said. “And I have that type of trust with (Manaea) that I went up to him and said I was sorry. And also to the players that are in that game, it’s my bad because it’s a play that has to be made.”

Behind Marte, the Mets mounted a rally in the eighth inning. It started when he hit solo home run, his second of the season, that bounced off the railing just over the left field wall. It continued with consecutive walks by Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, who had two home runs in the game, and then a DJ Stewart sacrifice fly.

“It’s really the focus and the approach of every single player that we have on this team,” Marte said regarding the late rally. “We’re going to continue to battle. It doesn’t matter how many runs the other team scores, we know that we’re playing a good time. But at the same time, they know that they’re playing a team that’s not going to give up.”

Despite cutting the game to within four runs, this late rally wasn’t enough to overcome the six-run hole the Mets had dug themselves.

The Mets have scored five or more runs in six out of the last seven games. In the last seven days, the Mets have the third most runs scored (45) in MLB.

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Manny Gómez may be reached at mgomez@njadvancemedia.com.