Rays fall short of no-hitter as Caminero rips

Rays nearly – Tampa Bay Rays missed their first combined no-hitter and second overall no-no in a 13-2 win over the Kansas City Royals, carrying a no-hit bid into the ninth inning. Junior Caminero powered the offense with three home runs, while left-hander Ian Seymour delive

The Tampa Bay Rays had the kind of afternoon that feels rare the moment it starts—and by the time it ended, it still left a mark.

In Thursday’s 13-2 win over the Kansas City Royals. Tampa nearly turned a historic day into something even more unforgettable. Kevin Cash’s team became the first MLB group to carry a no-hit bid into the ninth inning while also having one player launch three home runs. It wasn’t quite the combined no-hitter the Rays were chasing, but they still made history in the process.

Junior Caminero did the damage that kept the dugout buzzing early and often. He began the scoring by sending a home run off 2024 Cy Young runner-up Seth Lugo in the first inning. He added a solo shot in the fifth. then capped his night with a three-run blast in the eighth—an offensive barrage that carried the Rays well beyond the point of a comeback.

Caminero’s power stayed loud long after the last pitch of his three-homer performance. Entering the game, he was batting .285 with 19 home runs, a .377 on-base percentage, a .519 slugging percentage and an .896 OPS. The Rays’ lineup didn’t just benefit from one hot swing; it was the kind of production that has followed the 22-year-old third baseman through a sensational 2025 campaign.

Still, the bigger story belonged to the pitching staff for most of the evening.

Left-hander Ian Seymour set the tone with a performance that kept Kansas City from settling in. He logged 6 2/3 innings and finished with seven strikeouts. Even as Tampa’s hitters put points on the board. Seymour’s work kept the no-hit dream alive far longer than anyone watching would’ve expected from the kind of season that had come with bumpy stretches.

Tampa’s recent rhythm also mattered. After a rough run, the Rays won back-to-back games for the first time in two weeks—then did it with a win that carried the weight of something potentially historic.

There was a noticeable improvement from Seymour, too. The game lowered his ERA by more than half a run.

For a while, everything lined up with the strange, thrilling logic of baseball: offense that wouldn’t let up, and pitching that wouldn’t give the opposition so much as a crack. The Rays kept Kansas City at bay, and the no-hit bid kept stretching deeper into the night.

But the final frame didn’t belong to the Rays.

Craig Kimbrel—once one of the sport’s most dominant closers and viewed by many as a potential Hall of Famer—continued his late-career struggles. In the ninth inning, he coughed up the hit that ended the no-hit pursuit. Catcher Carter Jensen delivered the breaking moment with a one-out. 425-foot home run. ending Tampa’s chance at the first combined no-hitter and second overall no-no the team had been searching for.

The Rays, though, weren’t left empty-handed. They came out of the game with a lopsided win, and with the kind of rare accomplishment that doesn’t disappear just because the last out never arrived. Tampa improved to 45-33.

Next up, Tampa Bay is set to welcome the Arizona Diamondbacks (41-39) on Friday. Kansas City will get its shot to respond when it heads to Kauffman Stadium to battle the Rays at the beginning of next week, looking to avenge a result that felt humiliating for much of the evening.

Tampa Bay Rays Kansas City Royals Junior Caminero Ian Seymour Craig Kimbrel Carter Jensen Seth Lugo MLB no-hitter bid Tropicana Field