KANSAS CITY -- Impressed by the on-base ability and quality of at-bats in just three short weeks, manager Matt Quatraro wrote Carter Jensen’s name at the top of the Royals’ lineup card for Friday’s series opener against the Blue Jays.
“He’s been swinging the bat extremely well, and it gets him one more at-bat, one more crack at when the lineup turns over,” Quatraro explained pregame.
Jensen was taking that extra at-bat by the end of the first inning on Friday.
The Royals’ No. 2 prospect -- and MLB’s No. 66 -- doubled twice in the first inning and three times total on Friday as the Royals rode a seven-run first inning to a 20-1 rout over the Blue Jays at Kauffman Stadium.
Kansas City scored 20 runs in a game for the fourth time in franchise history, and the 27 hits marked a franchise record, one better than the 26-hit mark on Sept. 9, 2004, in Detroit.
The victory brought the Royals (77-77) back to .500 this season and pulled them back to a run differential of exactly zero.
“I wanted to get back in the dugout as quick as I could and get the guys back hitting again,” said starter Michael Lorenzen, who allowed one run over 7 2/3 innings and threw 113 pitches.
The Royals never looked back after their big first inning off future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer. After Jensen doubled, Bobby Witt Jr. brought him home with a single, then stole second before scoring on Vinnie Pasquantino’s double. Maikel Garcia walked, and Salvador Perez hit his 30th home run of the season, a three-run blast to right-center field.
Michael Massey also homered in the frame, and when Jensen hit his second double off Scherzer, the righty departed the game after recording just two outs. The Royals scored three more in the third inning and tacked on 10 between the seventh and eighth off position player Tyler Heineman.
“I mean, tonight was a little ridiculous with the way balls were flying. I’ve never seen a team hit like that off a position player,” said Pasquantino, who was 4-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs. “You’re kind of supposed to do that, but I’ve honestly never seen it. Typically, there’s a lot of flyouts. But I think that’s a testament to how the at-bats were going tonight. Guys weren’t trying to get big.”
As the bottom of the first began, the 22-year-old Jensen dug in against the 41-year-old Scherzer. The Kansas City native was not quite two years old when Scherzer burst onto the scene as a college sophomore in 2005, 120 miles east of Kauffman Stadium via Interstate 70 at the University of Missouri. Jensen had just turned three years old when Scherzer was drafted by the D-backs in ‘06 and was a 10-year-old falling in love with baseball when Scherzer won his first Cy Young Award in 2013.
On Friday, Jensen became the fourth Royal (fifth occurrence) to hit multiple extra-base hits in an inning, joining Perez (2025, ‘15), Jermaine Dye (1997) and Frank White (‘77).
Jensen is the first Royal to hit multiple doubles in a frame.
“The first inning was pretty cool, especially against someone like Scherzer,” Jensen said. “One of the best pitchers to ever do it. But I knew that, with that, I had to go into the game with the mentality that I can’t let him have that edge on me. I had to go up with confidence -- not cocky confidence, but confidence in myself -- just to go out there and do what I know I can do.”
Jensen hit .290/.377/.501 with 20 homers between Double-A and Triple-A this season, and he was honored pregame Friday as the George Brett Hitter of the Year, the Royals’ annual organizational award for their top Minor League hitter.
Far more exciting is what he’s done since his Sept. 2 debut: a .344/.447/.688 slashline with just seven strikeouts to six walks in 38 plate appearances.
That skillset is the reason why Quatraro put him at leadoff, a spot Jensen has hit at just three times before in his professional career (all in 2024 with High-A Quad Cities). But the catcher/designated hitter is disciplined at the plate, has power and can run the bases well. It fits well at the top of a lineup.
“I know I have power, I know I can drive the ball to all fields,” Jensen said. “The biggest thing for me, where I can sometimes get myself out, is swing decisions. If I can have the best plate discipline that I can and make the best swing decisions that I can, I know that I’m setting myself up for success.”