KANSAS CITY -- Jonathan Aranda had barely gotten situated at first base after a first-inning single off Royals starter Seth Lugo, and all of a sudden the ball was flying off Junior Caminero’s bat, bound for the seats beyond the visitors’ bullpen at Kauffman Stadium.
As he began his jog around the bases, Aranda couldn’t help but laugh. How else can you respond to the history Caminero seems to be making every night at this point?
“It's kind of amazing when you've got 25 other players in the dugout that are pretty much in awe, along with an entire coaching staff,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “That means you're doing some incredible things.”
Caminero swung at the first pitch he saw from Lugo, a sinker that was supposed to be away from Tampa Bay’s superstar but wound up leaking back inside. Caminero did what he’s done so often and blasted it out to left field for a two-run homer to jump-start the Rays’ 4-0 win over the Royals.
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 will turn 23 on Sunday. His age still won’t match his home run total for the season, which is now at 24.
“Pretty surprised,” Caminero said. “Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. ... When my name stays in that lineup, it's unbelievable.”
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).
Cash said he’s “running out of words” 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.”
Caminero, who struck out in his final three at-bats, is batting .452 (14-for-31) with nine homers and 20 RBIs over 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.
Starter Shane McClanahan, who called Caminero a “generational talent” on Tuesday, had a few more superlatives in mind after Caminero provided plenty of support with his homer and defense during McClanahan’s strong outing on Wednesday night.
“Probably call him an All-Star, maybe a Home Run Derby champion,” McClanahan said. “Junior is the best.”
Continuing to improve defensively and work daily with infield coach Brady Williams after a shaky start to the season at third base, Caminero made a handful of impressive plays behind McClanahan. He started a pair of double plays and snared a 108.3 mph line drive from Bobby Witt Jr. to end the third inning.
“He's been playing very good defense lately,” Cash said. “Making the routine play and making it look easy.”
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. And perhaps the most important development for the Rays was the performance of 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 and earned his first win since May 31. He gave up three hits and struck out four, threw first-pitch strikes to 16 of the 20 batters he faced and didn’t pitch himself into a single three-ball count, much less a walk.
“I'm proud of the attacking mindset that I've had and just going at guys, getting strike one and really being in favorable counts,” McClanahan said. “Tonight was a little better.”