ST. PETERSBURG -- The Rays found a little extra pop Tuesday night, and it started with the look.
Tampa Bay made a last-minute switch to its throwback Devil Rays uniforms for Game 2 of the American League Championship Series, and the move came with the kind of energy the Rays have fed off all season. Junior Caminero, one of the loudest presences in the clubhouse and on the field, helped set the tone in the 3-1 win over Cleveland at Tropicana Field with a fifth-inning play that turned into a full-on moment.
Caminero jumped to haul in a liner off Steven Kwan’s bat, then stared back and answered with a finger wag. The exchange had the feel of two players enjoying the stage, and it didn’t stop there. Later, in the seventh, Kwan reached third base after Chase DeLauter’s double, and he and Caminero shared a brief conversation about the earlier play.
“He told me, ‘Hey, if I hit it a little bit harder, the ball’s past you,’” Caminero said. “And I said, ‘Yeah, try to hit it harder and I won’t catch it. If you don’t hit it harder, we’ll catch it.’”
Caminero didn’t bother pretending the wag was anything but part of how he plays.
“I play like that, you know? I play like that,” Caminero said. “It’s about the game, competing and having fun.”
That edge has been there all year. The 23-year-old two-time All-Star is the kind of player who sprints out of the dugout to greet teammates at the plate, fires off hugs and high-fives, and keeps the energy moving. Teammates notice.
“He’s been a spark the whole year,” outfielder Chandler Simpson said. “He’s the head, and we’re the rest of the body. So we just follow his lead, and when he provides great energy, it’s definitely contagious to the rest of the team.”
The throwback change was made late in the morning, around 10 a.m. ET, after a suggestion from team CEO Ken Babby. By game time, the Rays were rolling with it.
“Ken likes to mix it up and go back and forth,” manager Kevin Cash said, “and I think our players like wearing all the bright colors."
The result matched the mood. Tampa Bay had gone 12-3 in those uniforms during the regular season, part of a 98-win run that ended with the AL East title. The set was not used during the American League Division Series, when the Rays swept the Yankees in three games, but it returned at exactly the right moment here.
“I could definitely see it, man,” said a smiling Bryan Baker, who worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his fourth save of the postseason. “I think we had a pretty good record in those this year, and this win was the biggest win of all of them in those unis. I think that, along with a lot of other factors, maybe [these are] some good luck for us.”
The victory evened the ALCS before the series heads to Cleveland for Games 3, 4 and 5. Tampa Bay won’t wear the throwbacks there, but it will have another familiar option: the new road uniform set it debuted in September, complete with a stingray on the jersey.
The Rays are 4-3 in those road uniforms, and they wore them in the clincher at Yankee Stadium in Game 3 of the ALDS.
Still, the bigger picture for Tampa Bay hasn’t changed. The club says its edge comes from sticking to what has carried it this far.
“Same thing. No changes,” outfielder Jonny DeLuca said. “We’re going to stay within us and do what we do best.”
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