TAMPA -- Before he even got on base in the ninth inning Thursday night, Junior Caminero received some helpful advice from bench coach Rodney Linares: Be aggressive.
Caminero took that advice to heart, and at the end of a wild ninth inning, that advice took him home.
Caminero homered, knocked in a run and dived home to score the winning run from second on Taylor Walls’ two-out infield single in the Rays’ bizarre 4-3 walk-off victory over the Rangers at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
“When I saw he turned the corner and he was going home, I was like, 'There goes my crazy guy,’” teammate Christopher Morel said of Caminero through interpreter Eddie Rodriguez. “Thank God he was able to score and we were able to win the game.”
The Rays’ fifth walk-off win of the season secured their third series sweep of the year. They’ve won 12 of their last 15 games, improving to four games above .500 (33-29) for the first time since the end of the 2023 campaign.
They won’t soon forget the strange way they won this one.
After 8 1/2 innings, all four runs scored in the game came on solo homers: two by Marcus Semien and one by Jake Burger for the Rangers, and one by Caminero on his bobblehead night at Steinbrenner Field.
The Rays were still in the game thanks to their brilliant pitching. Starter Ryan Pepiot recorded his sixth straight quality start, and the bullpen handled the rest of the club-record-tying 16th straight game in which the staff allowed four runs or fewer.
Then Yandy Díaz began the game-winning rally against lefty Robert Garcia with a one-out single to left field. Jonathan Aranda walked on four pitches. All of a sudden, the winning run was at the plate.
“We battled. We fought,” Caminero said through Rodriguez. “When we came into the ninth inning, I thought and I talked to myself, I was like, 'This is our inning. We're going to get them here.'”
Caminero made it a one-run game by driving in pinch-runner José Caballero with a single up the middle. That continued a remarkable stretch for the 21-year-old slugger, who has hit six of his team-leading 15 home runs in his last eight games while recording 16 of his 40 RBIs during the same span.
Jake Mangum flew out, but Morel reached on a two-out infield single where Caminero’s aggressiveness proved to be key.
“What can I tell you, all the glory is to God and to Caminero,” Morel said. “I was just trying to do my job there.”
Morel smashed a 103.5 mph grounder to third base, where Josh Jung fielded it and initially looked to second base. But Caminero got there in a hurry, eliminating that as an option, and by that point it was too late for Jung to retire Morel at first, loading the bases for Walls.
“I was talking to him while I was at first, just telling him, 'Just take your time. Stay calm,'” Caminero said. “And I was trying to get a big lead just to help him out.”
A big lead was on Caminero’s mind at second, too, and he took an aggressive secondary lead off the bag as Walls took three pitches from Garcia before bouncing the fourth one to the right side of the infield.
The ball was fielded by Semien, but it drew Josh Smith away from first base. With Garcia slow to cover first, the speedy Walls knew he could leg out the infield single.
Nobody anticipated what was coming next -- except Caminero.
“I was just trying to be aggressive there,” he said. “As soon as he put the ball in play, I was gone. … I didn’t even look at [third-base coach) Brady [Williams]. I just went.”
Semien held onto the ball and hesitated just long enough to give Caminero the time he needed to dash around third and slide home safely.
“That was a little nuts,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “I wasn't anticipating looking up and seeing Cami coming around.”
“That won't happen again. I mean, it’s crazy,” added Walls, who had his third career walk-off plate appearance and his second of the season. “He did a heck of a job.”
Just like that, down by two with two outs to go, the Rays were rushing the infield to celebrate a walk-off win.
“Just try to make it interesting in the ninth and let anything happen -- and anything happened tonight,” Pepiot said. “That was a wild one.”