Jensen's 440-Foot Blast Flips the Script in KC's 7-3 Win
Carter Jensen went 3-for-4 with a home run, 3 RBI, and 3 runs scored as Kansas City beat Miami 7-3 on September 3. The story of the night was a fifth-inning two-run shot that swung the win probability from 42% to 70% in one swing.
Miami looked like the sharper team early. Heriberto Hernandez opened the scoring with a 389-foot home run to left center in the first, and Joe Mack's RBI single in the second — scoring Marsee — pushed the Marlins to a 2-0 lead. Kansas City answered in the third: Jensen tripled to center to score Isbel, then Jac Caglianone doubled to right to score Jensen, knotting it at 2. Agustin Ramirez then gave Miami the lead back with a 426-foot shot to center in the fourth, and at that point it looked like the Marlins had enough to hold on.
They didn't. In the fifth, Jensen homered to right center — 440 feet — scoring Isbel ahead of him, and just like that Kansas City led 4-3. That swing moved the home win probability from 42% to 70%, a 28-point shift that effectively ended Miami's night as a competitive one. The Marlins managed nothing after Ramirez's fourth-inning blast, and the KC bullpen made sure of it: Nate Pearson threw 1.1 scoreless innings and Steven Cruz added a clean inning, combining for two strikeouts and zero hits allowed.
The eighth inning was pure salt in the wound for Miami. Caglianone singled to center to score Jensen, Perez doubled to left to score Caglianone, and Pasquantino doubled to right to score Tolbert — three runs, three extra-base hits, game over at 7-3. On the pitching side, Michael Wacha went six innings for KC, allowing 6 hits and 3 earned runs with 7 strikeouts against 2 walks — a workmanlike line that appears to have been just enough given the offense behind him. Sandy Alcantara matched the six innings for Miami but gave up 4 earned runs on 6 hits, finishing with only 2 strikeouts. The difference in strikeout rates between the two starters — Wacha's 7 versus Alcantara's 2 — looks like it told the story of who controlled the at-bats when it mattered. Jensen and Caglianone combined to go 5-for-8 with 5 RBI, and that duo was simply too much for Miami to overcome.