ATLANTA -- Rays third baseman Junior Caminero smiled and laughed when asked about the kid who “robbed” him of a homer in the final round of the T-Mobile Home Run Derby on Monday night at Truist Park.
“Things happen,” Caminero said through an interpreter. “He was enjoying himself out there too. He did something he thought was fun and it was fine.”
Fortunately for Caminero, the home run robbery became a fun footnote to his night, not a controversy. Officials quickly made it clear that since the ball would have cleared the wall, it would still count as a home run.
And as it was, Caminero was still outhomered, 18-15, by the Mariners’ Cal Raleigh in that final round.
"Yeah, I paid him off," Raleigh joked about the kid. "No, I didn't see it. I heard them talking about it."
The ball boy who made the defensive highlight on a night of offensive firepower was identified by the Athletic as Sam Musterer, the 17-year-old son of a Braves official scorer.
“I wasn’t quite aware of where I was on the fence,” Musterer told the Athletic. “I thought the fence was a little taller there. I kind of just reached up and grabbed it.”
The play evoked memories of a robbery back in the 1985 Home Run Derby. In that Derby, Ryne Sandberg had a home run taken away by a recent high school grad named Sean Moe, whose high school baseball team had been invited to shag balls.
Unlike Monday, that home run was not counted in Sandberg’s total.