CHICAGO — The Rays have bombarded teams with their small-ball approach early in the season.
They lead the Majors in sacrifice bunts (nine) and are fourth in stolen bases (20), but manager Kevin Cash knew this was a team that had pop in them. The White Sox found that out firsthand on Wednesday.
The Rays clubbed three home runs – just the second time this season they’ve done so – and beat the White Sox 8-3 on Wednesday night at Rate Field. It’s the Rays’ fifth straight win.
“That's baseball right there,” said Junior Caminero, who kick-started the offense with a third-inning solo home run. “We hit, run, bunt, we have power. We have everything this year. If you saw us last year, the lineup was not like that.
“This year you see everything, and that's baseball.”
Caminero was expected to be one of the main power threats for Tampa Bay this season after clubbing 45 home runs in 2025. He’s posted a .351 on-base percentage this season but hasn’t been blasting the ball out of the ballpark like you’d expect him to – Wednesday’s home run was just his third this year.
“I think he’s played really well, he’s had great at-bats all season long for us,” Cash said on Tuesday. “We’re all expecting him to have 10 (home runs) right now, which is probably unfair. Realistically, I think a couple of homers, and we’re probably looking at, ‘Oh here goes Junior again.’”
That blast was a showcase of his raw strength, too. Caminero reached out and jumped on a Sean Burke curveball, finishing his swing with one hand and sending the ball 393 feet on a 104.8 mph exit velocity.
“Yeah I've (been) working my body a lot last offseason,” Caminero said with a grin when asked about the strength he showcased on the blast.
Jake Fraley added a leadoff home run in the sixth inning to make it a 4-0 game, then Jonny DeLuca dealt the knockout blow. The pinch-hitter clubbed a three-run home run in the seventh inning that gave the Rays an eight-run cushion.
“I kind of have my routine by now of just any game I’m not starting, I feel like I'm going to get in there at some point,” DeLuca said. “Usually (in the) fourth, fifth inning, I move around, start getting the body ready and then taking swings. Just staying in my routine and got a good pitch to hit right there.”
That was plenty of support for Jesse Scholtens and the rest of the pitching staff. Scholtens continues to impress for a Rays' pitching staff that has had some injuries in the early goings. Ryan Pepiot was transferred to the 60-day injured list at the start of this series, and his replacement, Joe Boyle, landed on the IL last weekend.
He tossed five shutout innings against his former club after entering in the third inning behind opener Cole Sulser. Scholtens has pitched 9 2/3 shutout innings to start the season.
“I think you always hope performances lead to a lot of opportunity, but that’s not my call to make,” Scholtens said. “I’m just out there trying to help these guys win ballgames, and so far, we’ve been able to do that the last couple, and that’s all I'm trying to do right now.”
Of course, if the Rays' offense continues to perform as it has during their five-game winning streak, it mitigates some of the pitching concerns. They’ve scored 31 runs in that time and had just one home run before Wednesday’s outburst.
Even in the win, they still displayed some of their small-ball tendencies. Chandler Simpson laid down a sacrifice bunt in the fifth inning to advance a pair of runners who would score two batters later. Simpson was the only starter to not log a hit in the game, snapping his 16-game on-base streak and nine-game hitting streak.
“I think we can just do a little bit of everything, very versatile,” DeLuca said. “You need a bunt, you need a homer, you need to get ‘em over, hit and run, I think we can do it all with any of the guys in our lineup. I think it’s just the versatility of everyone.
“We’ve got speed, we’ve got guys who can slug. Just a little bit of everything.”