Friday, May 15

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ST. PETERSBURG -- Back in November, when Tropicana Field was still an active construction site, Junior Caminero donned a hard hat, put on some boots and made a trip to the Rays’ home ballpark.

He dropped off some donuts for the repair crew, took in the sights of the work-in-progress ballpark and imagined the possibilities this place may hold for him. Sitting in the bleachers on what’s now called the MaintenX SkyDeck, Caminero shouted, as if he were a fan, “Junior! You are the best!” 

He took an imaginary swing and said, “Boom!” Then he paused, smiled and continued, “And then…” He added the distinctive sound that plays at Tropicana Field whenever a Ray hits a home run and pressed down on an imaginary horn.

Six months later, he made it happen.

When he last played at the Trop in September 2024, he wasn’t really Junior Caminero yet. Not in the all-caps, All-Star sense of the face-of-the-franchise player he became while slugging 45 homers, driving in 110 runs and launching himself into the international spotlight over the past year.

So it was no surprise to see Caminero announce his arrival with authority in the Rays’ 6-4 home re-opening win over the Cubs on Monday afternoon. After popping out in his first at-bat, he jumped on a first-pitch fastball from Jameson Taillon and crushed it a Statcast-projected 401 feet to left field at 106.8 mph.

“The moment that I've been waiting for is when they announce my name here at Tropicana Field, to see how the home fans receive me and just the roars in the crowd that I'm going to get,” Caminero said before the game via interpreter Kevin Vera.

If he keeps this up, he’s bound to hear plenty more "roars." Caminero went deep in the Rays’ series finale against the Twins on Sunday, and he followed that with Monday’s solo shot to mark the 11th time in his young career that he’s homered in consecutive games. 

“I'm starting [to feel] more comfortable,” he said.

Teams have pitched the 22-year-old carefully after what he did last season, and that showed as he walked six times while recording just one extra-base hit (a double) in his first eight games. According to MLB Network research, Caminero entered Monday seeing way fewer pitches in the zone compared to last year, with a 39.2% in-zone rate compared to last season’s 49% mark.

But he was also chasing fewer pitches outside the zone, with a 26.9% chase rate compared to 32.1% in 2025. That’s a good thing, in the big picture, but occasionally Caminero reminds us what he can do even with pitches nobody should be able to hit -- much less hit out of the ballpark.

On Sunday, it was a splitter from Minnesota’s Simeon Woods Richardson that was just 1.04 feet off the ground, according to Statcast. It was, without a doubt, a ball. Nobody in the Majors has hit a pitch that low for a home run this season. Since Statcast began tracking that data, only current first-base coach Corey Dickerson has hit a lower pitch (0.82 feet) over the fence for the Rays.

On Monday, it was a fastball from Taillon that was at least a ball above the top of Caminero’s strike zone. Statcast marked the pitch at 3.5 feet off the ground -- about 2 1/2 feet higher than the one he clubbed out of Target Field the prior afternoon.

For context: It’s the third-biggest gap in homer height in the same season for a Rays player in the Statcast Era, behind only Dickerson in 2016 (3.41 feet) and ‘17 (2.68). To do it on back-to-back homers? That speaks to Caminero’s elite bat speed, the work he’s done with hitting coach Chad Mottola to cover more of the plate and his natural ability to hit just about anything thrown his way.

As Caminero explained in front of his locker Monday evening, he was expecting another splitter from Woods Richardson on Sunday and just wanted to make contact. He didn’t expect the pitch to be at his ankles, but he still made it work.

“I said, 'Oh, let me put it in play,'” Caminero said, “and you see the result.”

On Monday, he was looking for another fastball up in the zone. Taillon got him out on that pitch in the first inning, because Caminero was just a little bit late on it. He kept that in the back of his mind. And when he got a similar pitch right away in the third inning, well, he wasn’t late.

The horn sounded right on time.

“Wow. When you come back in the Trop now, feeling [like] this is our building,” Caminero said afterward. “The fans today supported the guys. It's amazing. Super excited to come back to Tropicana.”

•  The Rays celebrated the “great American comeback story” of Tropicana Field with a win. Read more >>

• Taylor Walls is back in the lineup sooner than even he anticipated, and Carson Williams is back in Triple-A. Read more >>

• Caminero golfed one out for his first home run of the season, then Richie Palacios went deep to secure a series win in Minnesota. Read more >>

• After a slow start, Cedric Mullins had his best game as a Ray on Saturday at the plate, on the bases and in center field. Read more >>

The Rays’ 4-1, 10-inning win over the Twins on Sunday afternoon was the 900th victory of Kevin Cash’s managerial career. He is the fourth active Major League manager to reach that mark, joining his friend and mentor Terry Francona (2,039 entering play on Monday), A.J. Hinch (968) and Dave Roberts (951).

Cash also joined another exclusive club: He became the ninth manager in Major League history to win 900 games while only managing one team in his career, according to Stats Perform. The others: Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda (Dodgers), Mike Scioscia (Angels), Earl Weaver (Orioles), Tom Kelly (Twins), Hughie Jennings (Tigers), Danny Murtaugh (Pirates) and Red Schoendienst (Cardinals).

A fan-favorite promotion at Tropicana Field has a different look this year. The Kane’s Furniture 10 Strikeout promo features a new reward, as the Rays have partnered with Busch Gardens. So, whenever Rays pitchers record 10 or more strikeouts at home, fans can visit KanesStrikeout.com and visit any participating Kane’s Furniture location to redeem a voucher for a complimentary Busch Gardens ticket. Some restrictions apply.

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