Caminero’s two-run – Down 0–2 in the series and scoreless the night before, the Rays needed a spark in the eighth. Junior Caminero delivered it with a two-run homer off Sam Bachman, igniting a five-run frame and helping Tampa Bay beat the Angels 8–3 in Sunday’s finale.
ANAHEIM — The Rays came into the finale after dropping the first two games of the series, but their clubhouse mood didn’t soften. It sharpened. Sunday’s 8–3 win over the Angels didn’t just end the stretch — it flipped the timing, the momentum, and the relief.
“We’ll take a win however we can get it after the first two games here,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “Really pleased top to bottom of the lineup. … We were able to pile on with some big hits, which has been challenging over the last couple of days.”
That “pile on” arrived late, starting with the swing that changed everything for Junior Caminero. In the top of the eighth. with the game tied 3–3 against Angels reliever Sam Bachman. Cedric Mullins reached on a walk and stole a base. Then Caminero broke the tie by launching a two-run home run to left field — his 15th of the season.
It was the kind of moment a player chases when the hits don’t come. Caminero had struggled through a 1-for-11 stretch over the weekend, and he pointed directly to what he tried to do at the plate when the game was still close.
“In that moment, I tried to level up in play,” Caminero said. “I tried not [to do] too much, And, thank God I hit a home run. … Today [was a] great day for the team, not [just] for me. Everybody’s putting [in] one hundred percent here.”
Cash said the dugout had felt that pressure on its young infielder long before the ball left the bat.
“He delivers a bunch, but I know he was starting to really want to come through for us,” Cash said of Caminero. “The dugout got excited. It was a huge homer. … Things haven’t gone our way, and it felt like after that hit, it started to go our way.”
The homer didn’t just give the Rays a lead — it stretched Bachman’s problems. The blast triggered a continuous two-out rally in the eighth. Hunter Feduccia added an RBI single, and Victor Mesa Jr. followed with a two-run home run to cap the five-run frame. By the end of it, Bachman’s ERA ballooned to 3.31.
Before that seventh-inning swing of fate, Tampa Bay had already been looking for traction. The Rays were scoreless the previous night, but Sunday they manufactured early pressure.
In the third inning, Chandler Simpson delivered the first real jolt, dropping a two-run single into center field to score Mesa and Jonathan Aranda, who had reached on a single.
Ben Williamson then added on in the fourth with his first home run as a Ray — a solo shot to center field off Drew Pomeranz that sent the dugout into a celebration.
“Probably a little bit of help from the wind, but I got a good pitch to hit and I was committed to it and luckily I snuck over the fence,” Williamson said laughing.
On the mound, the Rays leaned into their planned pitching strategy to handle an Angels lineup loaded with right-handed hitters. Opener Casey Legumina handled the first 1 2/3 innings, allowing one run on two hits while striking out one across 28 pitches. Left-hander Ian Seymour then took over for the middle frames, logging 3 1/3 innings and striking out three.
Seymour also worked through a high-leverage threat in the fifth to preserve the tie, then Kevin Kelly took over with two scoreless innings to keep things locked until the offense finally broke loose.
That late cushion became necessary again in the bottom of the eighth. Reliever Craig Kimbrel hit a batter and issued two walks to load the bases with one out. Garrett Cleavinger came in and struck out pinch-hitters Trey Mancini and Oswald Peraza in succession to leave the bases stranded. preserving the five-run lead.
Bryan Baker then closed the ninth.
Cash summed up the sequence: Kelly “quieted” things after Anaheim’s bats heated up all series, Cleavinger delivered two huge strikeouts, and Baker finished it.
“[Kevin Kelly] came in, kind of quieted — Anaheim really swung the bats well all series and [he] threw up some zeros,” Cash said. “Cleve came in and got two huge strikeouts for us, and then handed it to Baker to finish it off.”
With the win, the Rays moved firmly into second place in the AL East and turned their attention immediately to the road. Next up is a matchup against the NL West-leading Dodgers in Los Angeles.
Mullins said the result matters because it pulls the team forward instead of letting them drift.
“[This win was] big,” Mullins said of the momentum. “We’ve [been] going back and forth with getting some good runs going, getting some good stretches going, and then cutting ourselves short a little bit. So one step forward each day, [and we’ll] take it into L.A.”
Rays Angels Junior Caminero Sam Bachman Kevin Cash Cedric Mullins AL East Dodgers