Mesa crushes decisive homer -- and Junior wants you to know whose bat he used
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NEW YORK -- Victor Mesa Jr. aced his Junior Caminero impression in the sixth inning of Game 3 of the ALDS on Wednesday night. The Rays’ left fielder jumped all over a first-pitch sweeper from Yankees left-hander Max Fried, depositing it deep into the right-field seats to give Tampa Bay the lead for good en route to a 4-3 victory for a series sweep.
As it turns out, Mesa even received a bit of help from Caminero along the way.
“That’s my bat right there,” a jubilant Caminero said in the Rays’ dugout, pounding his chest, in a moment captured on the TBS broadcast. “If he doesn’t use it, he doesn’t homer.”
There is plenty of power in Caminero’s bat, given that the All-Star third baseman slugged 42 home runs in the regular season, more than all but three Major League hitters. On Wednesday night, Caminero saved a little extra juice for Mesa to borrow. And Mesa did, in a big way.
No one swings a faster bat than Caminero, whose 79.5 mph average bat speed led all qualified hitters in the regular season. Mesa’s swing was similarly vicious, with a bat speed of 85.9 mph. The ball jumped off Mesa’s bat with a 107.3 mph exit velocity and sailed a Statcast-projected 401 feet into the Bronx night.
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Mesa did not need to watch the ball leave the yard: He stood at home plate and turned his body toward the Rays’ third-base dugout, where his teammates provided the only noise inside Yankee Stadium. After a moment, he calmly dropped Caminero’s bat and began his trot around the bases.
When Mesa returned to the dugout, Caminero was there to greet him.
“Together, together,” Caminero continued, pointing at Mesa, whose tiebreaking home run was the first of his playoff career.
Together, indeed. Caminero’s line-drive two-out single extended the inning and brought Mesa to the plate in the first place.