When Logan Kensing recorded the win in Wednesday's game against the Cubs, he got a little payback.
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Afterwards, Kensing was reminded of the day he broke into the big leagues. It was on Sept. 10, 2004, at Wrigley Field. The Marlins were in Wild Card contention, as were the Cubs, and Florida needed an emergency starter to pitch the second game of a doubleheader.
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Called up from Class A Jupiter, Kensing was matched against Mark Prior with 38,992 fans packed into Wrigley Field.
Kensing was tagged for five runs on eight hits, including two homers, in two-plus innings.
Three years later, Kensing is now a reliever who has battled back from Tommy John elbow reconstruction surgery. Asked if he felt any satisfaction for beating the Cubs, he quipped: "Ten more wouldn't equal it out.
I remember that year, or at least I think I do. That was the year that Hurricane Frances screwed everything up for the Marlins playoff chances. With the Marlins ending up playing an ungodly number of games without a day off in September, including losing a number of home games in the process. When I say we lost home games, I don't mean it was a defeat in the home stadium, what I mean is that the team had to play them in another stadium. All of this thanks to the hurricane and MLB screwing the Marlins over.
At that time, when Kensing was asked to make to that start, he wasn't really called up from Jupiter. He was called up from his couch at home. The Marlins Triple-A and Double-A were in the minor league playoffs and the team decided not to interrupt them. So the next best option was to go find a good High-A pitcher in the organization to make the start. And that happened to be Logan Kensing.
Kensing showed he had good stuff, but wasn't from ready to be in the Bigs. If I remember correctly, and I could look this up but I don't have time, he did a little better in his second start but ran into trouble the second time through the order.
There for a while Logan was kinda of a folklore hero among Marlins fans. If the Marlins needed an emergency starter, the cry would go out for Kensing to start -- after all, that is what he does.