The Rays are headed back to the World Series, and Junior Caminero made sure Game 6 had a swing that turned the night. Tampa Bay closed out the Guardians with a 7-3 win to take the ALCS, 4-2, and the Rays will now face the Milwaukee Brewers.
Caminero’s biggest moment came with Tampa Bay leading 3-1 in the sixth. He stepped in against Guardians closer Cade Smith and sent a drive to left field that clipped the foul pole for a two-run homer, pushing the Rays out to a 5-1 edge. That blast mattered even more when Cleveland answered with two runs in the very next inning.
"TAMPAAA ... THIS IS FOR YOU" - Junior Caminero pic.twitter.com/yHx8y4xBoz
— MLB (@MLB) October 20, 2026
After the game, the 23-year-old third baseman let the emotion spill out and made sure the message landed with Rays fans.
“Tampa is the best. Tampa gave me the opportunity to play here.
Tampa, this is for you!” Caminero channeled a bit of his inner LeBron James with that proclamation, via the official MLB account on X.
There’s another layer to this one for Caminero, too. The Guardians - still the Indians when they signed him as an amateur free agent in 2019 - were the organization that first brought him in. He played just one season there before Cleveland traded him to Tampa Bay for reliever Tobias Myers, and Myers never pitched for the big-league club.
Now Caminero is right in the middle of a Rays run that’s taken them to their third World Series in franchise history. Tampa Bay finished with the best record in the American League and backed it up in October, while Caminero is suddenly sitting four wins away from a first title with the team that gave him his opportunity.
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