Player of the Series: Junior Caminero
Caminero busted out of a brief slump to bombard the Mets
For those who didn’t know, on their current road trip the Tampa Bay Rays allowed players to invite wives and children along with them.
In 21-year old Junior Caminero’s case, he invited his father to travel with the team.
For the first four games of the trip, Caminero struggled as he went hitless in 19 consecutive plate appearances. However, Caminero was still hitting the ball hard and only struck out once over those 19 trips to the plate. Regardless, the Rays young slugger believed he may have been trying too much with his father in the stands and after reviewing some video, made some adjustments.
Whatever change Caminero made, it worked.
On Saturday, with the Rays trailing by a run in the 4th inning, Caminero smacked a ball 409 feet into the left field seats for his 16th homerun of the season to tie the game; the Rays would bat around that inning giving Caminero a chance at history, but he walked instead.
The following day, Fathers Day, Caminero went deep once again as he blistered a ball just over the wall in left field for his 17th homerun of the season.
Those two homeruns were Caminero’s only hits of the season, but he also drew four walks and only struck out once over 15 plate appearances.
There were plenty of notable performances for the Rays this weekend as they swept the best team in baseball. Jonathan Aranda had a 263 wRC+ and accrued 0.3 fWAR, Shane Baz hurled 6 2⁄3 scoreless innings. The only pitcher on the staff that gave up an earned run was Drew Rasmussen.
All in all, a wonderful series for the Rays.
With his two homeruns this past weekend, Junior Caminero is now hitting .246/.292/.500 with 17 HR on the season, registering a 123 wRC+ and accruing 1.5 fWAR over 281 plate appearances.
It is still very early on in Caminero’s career as he only played in 117 games at the big league level. His 24 HR over his first 117 games is the second most in franchise history, just behind Evan Longoria who had 26 over his first 117 games.
DRAYSBAY PLAYER OF THE SERIES
- 1st: Kameron Misner
- 2nd: Jake Mangum
- 3rd: Brandon Lowe
- 4th: Jose Caballero
- 5th: Joe Boyle
- 6th: Shane Baz
- 7th: Chandler Simpson
- 8th: Christopher Morel
- 9th: Chandler Simpson
- 10th: Mason Englert
- 11th: Taylor Walls
- 12th: Yandy Diaz
- 13th: Travis Jankowski
- 14th: Brandon Lowe
- 15th: Drew Rasmussen
- 16th: Curtis Mead
- 17th: Junior Caminero
- 18th: Zack Littell
- 19th: Zack Littell
- 20th: Junor Caminero
- 21st: Christopher Morel
- 22nd: Yandy Diaz
- 23rd: Junior Caminero