Royals 7, Marlins 3: Jensen a Single Short of the Cycle

September 3, 2026 - Kansas City - Carter Jensen doubled. He tripled. He homered. The single never showed up. On a 97-degree night in front of 10,803 at Kauffman Stadium, that was still enough for the Kansas City Royals to beat the Miami Marlins 7-3 and avoid a three-game sweep.

Jensen finished 3-for-4 with three runs and three RBI. Michael Wacha lasted six innings after giving up two homers. The Royals trailed 2-0 and 3-2 and still left with the series win they needed.

Two Miami homers, then Jensen's night started

Heriberto Hernández hit Wacha's first pitch to left-center for his 23rd homer, the first leadoff shot of his career. 1-0 Marlins before Kansas City had a chance to sweat through the first inning. Jakob Marsee doubled to start the second and scored on Joe Mack's single. 2-0. Wacha had allowed an extra-base hit to open two straight innings.

Kansas City answered in the third. Kyle Isbel reached. Jensen tripled to center, his second of the year, and Isbel scored. Jac Caglianone doubled him home. 2-2. That was the first half of Jensen's card: the triple that tied the night to him.

Miami went back in front in the fourth. Agustín Ramírez led off with a 426-foot homer to center, his third. 3-2. Wacha had now opened four straight innings with an extra-base hit. Most nights that is how you lose. Thursday it was how you waited for the fifth.

The 440-foot answer

Isbel singled with one out in the fifth. Jensen followed Sandy Alcantara to right-center, 440 feet, his 22nd homer and his third in two games. 4-3 Royals. Alcantara (13-9) had been trying to finish a third sweep of an American League club this season. That swing ended the attempt.

Wacha (9-8) got through six with three runs, six hits, two walks, and seven strikeouts. Nate Pearson and Craig Kimbrel kept Miami off the board after that. Steven Cruz threw a clean ninth. The lead held because Kansas City added on.

The eighth was the insurance. Jensen scored on Caglianone's single. Salvador Perez doubled Caglianone home. Tyler Tolbert scored on Vinnie Pasquantino's double. 7-3. Three two-out swings, three more runs, and a box score that finally matched the heat.

Caglianone finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and a double. Isbel went 2-for-3 with two runs. Bobby Witt Jr. was 0-for-3 with a walk. Perez and Pasquantino each doubled in the eighth after going quiet for six innings. The Royals did not need their best player to be their loudest one. They needed the catcher who was a single short of the cycle to keep running the bases, and they needed the bottom of the eighth to look like a team that had already decided it would not get swept.

Alcantara's night was the other half of that. Six innings, four runs, six hits. Two of the three Miami runs were homers. The third was Marsee doubling and Mack singling. That is a workable road start if the bullpen holds a one-run game. Miami's relievers inherited a 4-3 deficit in the eighth and left with 7-3. The sweep died there.

A sweep avoided, a board owned

Kansas City is 63-78, 10 1/2 back in the AL Central. The Associated Press noted the Royals are tied with Colorado and the Athletics for the most series sweeps taken this season, with 10. Thursday kept that number from becoming 11. Miami is 71-70, still in the NL wild-card conversation, and went home without the sweep.

Alcantara allowed four runs on six hits in six innings. Hernández and Ramírez went deep. The rest of the Miami order did not add a third homer, and the eighth inning belonged entirely to Kansas City.

Friday the Marlins host the Cubs, Justin Junk (6-8, 4.11) starting. The Royals host Toronto, Daniel Lynch (4-4, 3.06) on the mound. That is a different kind of September night than 97 degrees and a near-cycle.

After the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) scored Jensen at 15 hitting fantasy points, first among Thursday's bats. A double, a triple, a homer, three runs, and three RBI will do that. Wacha added 11 pitching FP. Kansas City posted 14 team FP, second on the slate behind Texas.

Fantasy points measure what a player did under platform scoring. Price is what the market will pay. They are related. They are not the same number. See dynamic pricing.

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*Sources: ESPN recap and box score, MLB.com gameday, MLB.com schedule, AthX Engine daily scoring for September 3, 2026. Information only; not financial advice.*