Caminero ties franchise mark with a homer in six straight games

KANSAS CITY -- Junior Caminero wasted no time making history on Wednesday night.

Caminero swung at the first pitch he saw from Royals starter Seth Lugo, an inside sinker, and blasted it out to left field for a two-run homer in the first inning of the Rays’ 4-0 win over the Royals at Kauffman Stadium.

It was Caminero’s sixth straight game with a home run, matching the franchise record set by Carlos Peña from June 6-12, 2010. And it almost immediately had the Rays on their way to their seventh straight victory, matching their longest winning streak of the season and making them the first American League team to record 50 wins.

The Statcast-projected 425-foot blast also made Caminero the youngest player since at least 1900 to go deep in six straight games. That distinction previously belonged to Ken Griffey Jr., who was 23 years and 246 days old when he homered in his sixth straight game (amid his record-tying eight-game run) on July 25, 1993.

Meanwhile, Caminero won’t even turn 23 until Sunday.

Coaches and teammates are running out of ways to describe Caminero’s historic tear at the plate, but catcher Nick Fortes found a good way to explain it Tuesday night.

“You just go through stretches where you're locked in. His ‘locked in’ is a lot different than most people's ‘locked in,’” Fortes said. “He gets a pitch, and he's just not missing it.”

After that at-bat, Caminero -- doing everything he can to boost his case to be the AL’s starting third baseman in the All-Star Game -- was hitting an even .500 (14-for-28) with nine homers and 20 RBIs in his last eight games. That’s the most home runs in an eight-game span for any player age 22 or younger since at least 1900.

Coincidentally, the Home Run Derby-bound slugger started this home run binge against Lugo last Thursday at Tropicana Field, as he took the veteran right-hander deep twice during the first three-homer game of his career.

Before Caminero, the last player to hit a home run in six straight games was Rafael Devers from May 15-20, 2024. If Caminero goes yard again in Thursday night’s series finale, he’ll become only the seventh player to ever have a seven-game home run streak, with Mike Trout (Sept. 4-12, 2022) being the most recent to do so.

The all-time record of eight straight games with a home run is shared by Griffey, Don Mattingly (July 8-18, 1987) and Dale Long (May 19-28, 1956).

Continuing to improve defensively after a shaky start to the season at third base, Caminero also made a handful of impressive plays on the night. He started a pair of double plays and snared a 108.3 mph line drive from Bobby Witt Jr. to end the third inning.

But this game wasn’t just the Caminero show.

Cedric Mullins also homered off Lugo in the sixth inning, giving the Rays multiple homers in each of their last six games, and drove in another run in the eighth.

Perhaps the most important development for the Rays was the performance of starter Shane McClanahan, who delivered a terrific start in his return from extra rest.

Pitching for the first time since June 23 as the Rays look for ways to manage his workload, McClanahan breezed through six innings on only 69 pitches. He gave up three hits and struck out four, and he didn’t pitch himself into a single three-ball count, much less a walk.