ST. PETERSBURG – As he waited in the on-deck circle before an at-bat last Saturday in Game 1 of the American League Division Series, with more than 40,000 vociferous Rays and Yankees fans in attendance at Tropicana Field, Tampa Bay third baseman Junior Caminero remarked to manager Kevin Cash that he hadn't seen an atmosphere like that since the World Baseball Classic in March at Miami’s loanDepot park.
In that tournament, Caminero tied for the overall lead in home runs with three and slashed .350/.409/.850 for the Dominican Republic in six games. This month, after coming into this postseason with just two playoff at-bats under his belt as a rookie in the 2023 AL Wild Card Series against the Rangers, Caminero is 3-for-10 with a double and two runs scored, helping the Rays sweep the Yankees in the ALDS.
Another member of the Rays who stood out in the World Baseball Classic has also had a solid start to this year’s postseason for Tampa Bay. That would be Jonathan Aranda, who had had just one postseason at-bat in his career before this season – also in '23 against Texas.
After slashing .357/.438/.643 with a home run for Team Mexico in four games at Houston’s Daikin Park in March, the Rays' first baseman came up big in the ALDS, producing the only run in Game 1 with a 417-foot round-tripper off Gerrit Cole and posting a .333/.385/.583 for the series, including an RBI single in Wednesday’s clinching victory.
Seeing Caminero and Aranda have that type of success in their first prolonged Major League postseason, Cash sees a correlation between their exposure to the atmosphere of the WBC and what they’re experiencing now in the postseason.
“I go back to the WBC,” Cash said. “If you ask those two individuals you’re talking about, I think they would say that that environment in the WBC is as intense as any environment that they’ve witnessed in their careers.
“We know that both of those guys really took off for their countries; whether it was the Dominican Republic or Team Mexico, they were huge parts of their success. The big at-bats, the big hits, I think it really helped them. And more than anything, they were excited to get the opportunity to do this now in Major League playoff baseball.”
In Miami’s Pool D, the atmosphere was electric, with the Dominican Republic and eventual tournament champion Venezuela among the countries playing in front of passionate sellout crowds cheering on their nations’ teams. And in Houston’s Pool B, Mexico also had large partisan crowds rooting for the bordering nation, an environment crescendoed with the matchup against the United States in pool play.
“I don’t think you can say the moment’s been too big for either of them,” Cash said, once again crediting their experiences in the Classic as part of their overall preparedness for the MLB postseason. “I think they had really good, strong series in the DS. I think those two guys have had tremendous at-bats for us.”