Junior Caminero keeps turning every night into a power show, and Friday was just the latest chapter.
With the Tampa Bay Rays tied with the Houston Astros in the seventh inning, Caminero launched a solo homer that ended up standing as the game-winner in a 3-1 Rays victory to kick off the holiday weekend. It was another loud swing in a stretch that has turned him into the hottest home run hitter in the sport.
Caminero now has 10 home runs in his last 10 games, and he has gone deep in four straight series. That run included a brief pause on Thursday, when he didn’t leave the yard in Tampa Bay’s three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals. Even then, he had already done plenty of damage earlier in the series, homering twice and driving in five runs over the first two games.
The power binge has pushed Caminero close to an MLB record, too. At one point, he homered in six consecutive games, leaving him two shy of the mark shared by Dale Long, Don Mattingly and Ken Griffey Jr., who each homered in eight straight games.
His biggest outburst in this stretch came on June 25, when he blasted three homers and drove in six runs in a 13-2 win over the Royals.
Caminero’s surge has helped fuel a nine-game winning streak for Tampa Bay, which sits at 52-33 and four games ahead of the New York Yankees in the American League East.
Through 85 games and 323 at-bats, Caminero is on pace for career-best numbers across the board. He has 25 home runs, 55 RBIs, a .557 slugging percentage, a .376 on-base percentage and a .288 batting average.
The 2025 All-Star broke out last season in his third MLB year, finishing with 45 home runs, 110 RBIs and 28 doubles in 154 games and 602 at-bats.
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