Jensen's Walk-Off Single Caps Insane 10th-Inning KC Comeback
Kansas City trailed 6-3 heading into the bottom of the 10th and scored four runs to steal a 7-6 win over San Diego on July 18. Carter Jensen's single to left — which swung KC's win probability from 55% to 100% — was the last word in one of the messier, more electric games of the summer.
The first nine innings were a study in how errors can rewrite a baseball game. Lane Thomas gave KC the early edge with a 445-foot blast to left center in the 2nd, but San Diego flipped the script in the 5th when Michael Massey's fielding error allowed both France and Andujar to score on a single fielder's choice grounder, putting the Padres up 2-1. Kansas City clawed back to 2-2 in the 6th on a throwing error by shortstop Bogaerts, then took a 3-2 lead in the 8th when a throwing error by center fielder Merrill turned a Massey single into a multi-base chaos sequence that scored Pasquantino. Neither team was winning this game clean — they were winning it ugly.
Ty France answered with a 421-foot homer to left center in the 9th to tie it at 3-3, and then the 10th inning arrived and San Diego went to work. Andujar doubled to right to score Cronenworth, Tatis Jr. singled to right to score Andujar, and a Bogaerts sacrifice fly to center made it 6-3. Three runs, three at-bats, and the Padres looked like they'd buried it. Andujar finished 3-for-4 with 2 runs scored, and Tatis Jr. went 3-for-5 with an RBI — the story of the night, it appeared, was San Diego's offense finally breaking through.
Then Kansas City happened. Massey reached on an infield single to score Pasquantino, making it 6-4. A Collins groundout scored Perez to cut it to 6-5. The Padres were one out away from escaping, and instead Jensen singled to left, scoring both Massey and Loftin to complete the 7-6 comeback. Win probability swung from 55% to 100% on that single swing. Jensen finished 3-for-5 with 2 RBI; Massey went 3-for-5 with 2 RBI and a run scored. On the mound, Seth Lugo gave KC six solid innings — 4 hits, 1 earned run, 3 strikeouts — while Adrian Morejon absorbed the damage in relief for San Diego, allowing 1 earned run over 2 innings. The Padres had this game. Then they didn't.