TAMPA — When Junior Caminero reported to Spring Training, he had an ambitious objective in mind. The slugging third baseman wanted to hit 30 home runs. For all the former top prospect’s talents, that mark had only been reached 18 times in the Rays’ first 27 seasons. To reach that goal at such a young age, in his first full season, would be special.
As it turns out, Caminero should have aimed higher. Quite a bit higher.
Caminero became only the second player in franchise history to hit 40 home runs in a single season on Tuesday night, crushing a game-tying homer off Seattle starter Bryan Woo in the sixth inning. And he wasn’t done.
In the seventh, Caminero knocked a tiebreaking two-run double down the left-field line, giving him 100 RBIs on the season and sending the Rays to a 6-5 win over the Mariners at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Tampa Bay got back to .500 (69-69) with its fifth straight victory, pulling within 3 1/2 games of Seattle for the final American League Wild Card spot.
Caminero appeared to appreciate the milestone homer, raising four fingers in the air and looking toward the home dugout as he trotted down the first-base line. The Statcast-projected 105.2 mph, 390-foot blast to left-center field gave Caminero 98 RBIs on the season and put him in rarefied air.
Caminero is six home runs shy of matching the single-season franchise-record mark held by Carlos Peña, who went deep 46 times in 2007. Only five hitters have more home runs than Caminero this season: Cal Raleigh, Kyle Schwarber, Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge and Eugenio Suárez.
And he is the fourth-youngest player in Major League history with at least 40 home runs in a season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, behind Mel Ott (20 years and 218 days on the final day of the season) in 1929, Ronald Acuña Jr. (21 years and 285 days) in 2019 and Eddie Matthews (21 years and 349 days) in 1953. On the final day of the season, Caminero will be only 22 years and 85 days old.
An inning later, Caminero’s two-run double off lefty Gabe Speier broke a 4-4 tie and continued his assault on Tampa Bay’s record books. He is only the seventh player in franchise history with a triple-digit RBI season and the first since Austin Meadows had 106 in 2021.
Between Caminero’s pivotal milestone hits, reliever Kevin Kelly recorded the biggest out of the game. Recalled from Triple-A Durham on Monday, Kelly entered Tuesday’s game in the seventh with two outs, the bases loaded and AL MVP candidate Raleigh coming to the plate. The right-hander stoically worked his way out of the jam, striking out Raleigh on four pitches.
