Wednesday, 4 a.m.
In baseball, there are plateaus. They help us to define greatness
More.and more, it looks like Junior Caminero.
Caminero hit another home run Tuesday night. It gave him 40 for the year. He drove in another few runs. That gave him 100 for the year. He helped the Rays to a victory -- and they have now won as many games as they have lost.
Who knew? This third baseman -- and this team -- might make things interesting yet.
Caminero had another superb game Tuesday night -- getting a single, double, a home run and driving in four runs -- to lead the Rays to their fifth straight victory, a 6-5 win over Seattle. Not bad for a 22-year-old.
The Rays are now within 3 1/2 games of the final Wild Card spot. They've won five of their last series.
The Rays and Mariners swapped the lead for most of the night. They took a 2-0 lead on a single by Caminero and a ground out by Josh Lowe.
The Rays lost the lead on three solo homers by Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez and Jorge Palanco in the fourth inning.
The Rays came back on Caminero's home run in the sixth. A sacrifice fly by Tristan Gray gave the Rays a 4-3 lead.
Seattle tied the game on a sacrifice fly by Cole Young.
That left it up to Caminero again. In the seventh inning, he laced a 2-2 pitch into the left field corner to drive in Chandler Simpson and ¥andy Diaz.
The Rays escaped a jam in the ninth. Two walks and a single loaded the bases against Griffin Jax. Garrett Cleavenger worked his way out of the inning giving up only one run. He retired Randy Arozarena on a fly to right and got Raleigh on a popup.
The Rays play Seattle again tonight at 7:35 p.m. at Steinbrenner Field. Adrian Houser will start for the Rays against George Kirby.