MINNEAPOLIS -- With spring weather and the return of Masters week, it’s only natural that people’s thoughts might turn to golf -- even baseball players. On Sunday afternoon at Target Field, Junior Caminero found a way to celebrate both sports with his first home run of the season in the Rays’ 4-1 win over the Twins in 10 innings.
Matt Wallner had given the Twins a 1-0 lead when he led off the second inning with a long homer onto the plaza in right field. But Caminero tied it in the fourth when he golfed a Simeon Woods Richardson pitch over the left-field fence.
Woods Richardson and Caminero battled to a 2-2 count when the Twins starter threw a splitter well below the strike zone. But the Rays’ 22-year-old third baseman reached out and launched it high and deep to left. The ball carried into the second deck after traveling a Statcast-projected 397 feet with a launch angle of 28 degrees.
The pitch Caminero hit was just 1.14 feet off the ground. That makes it the third-lowest pitch a Rays hitter has taken out of the yard since Statcast began tracking it in 2015, behind only Corey Dickerson (0.82 feet on Oct. 1, 2016) and Brad Miller (1.08 feet on June 11, 2016).
The score stayed knotted at 1-1 until Richie Palacios belted a go-ahead two-run homer in the top of the 10th off right-hander Justin Topa. The Rays tacked on another when Caminero walked with the bases loaded later in the inning.