ST. PETERSBURG -- Junior Caminero may have given fans a scare when he hobbled into the dugout in the decisive 12th inning of the Rays’ Game 4 win to extend the World Series on Tuesday night, but as expected, he was back in the lineup for Wednesday night's 4-1 loss in Game 5.
Caminero sparked the Rays’ 12th-inning rally in Game 4. He grounded a 1-1 pitch toward third base to lead off the inning, but Brewers third baseman Joey Ortiz bounced his throw short of the first-base bag and Jake Bauers couldn’t make the pick.
Caminero reached safely on the error and appeared to be favoring his left foot as he returned to the bag. But he remained in the game and hustled hard from first to third on Liam Hicks’ single to left-center field.
According to Statcast, Caminero reached a maximum sprint speed of 27.7 feet per second on that dash, above his season average of 26.7.
“He's fine and obviously in the lineup,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said during a pregame press conference on Wednesday before Caminero went 1-for-4 in the season-ending loss. “Really impressive that he went first to third right there. Very instinctual play.”
Caminero was then lifted for pinch-runner Cedric Mullins and limped into the dugout, but he was not removed from the game due to an injury. It was simply about giving the Rays the best chance to score, with a faster runner who could more easily get home on a sacrifice fly, and come back to win the game.
Cash explained after Game 4 that they didn’t want to replace Caminero until he got into scoring position, in part because they were already working with a thin bench.
Caminero revealed to reporters after the game that he is dealing with a sore left foot, though he quickly said he was feeling, “Good, good.”
"He's been dealing with some lower extremity injuries," Cash said ahead of Game 5. "But there's a lot of guys that are nicked up right now playing through a lot and know that Cami will be ready to go today."
Mullins then scored the tying run on Jonny DeLuca’s single in the ensuing at-bat. Chandler Simpson and Ben Williamson also hit singles of their own in the next two at-bats to secure the walk-off win.
There was seemingly no question about Caminero’s availability for Game 5, as Cash said during an appearance on the FOX postgame show set late Tuesday night: “He’ll play tomorrow on one leg; I’ll make sure of it.”