CLEVELAND -- The Rays’ long-awaited middle-of-the-order surge arrived at just the right time Saturday night.
Junior Caminero, Jonathan Aranda and Yandy Díaz all came through in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, and Tampa Bay rode that collective burst to a 7-3 win over the Guardians that evened the series at 2-2 and pushed homefield advantage back to Tropicana Field. The Rays are now guaranteed to host Game 6 on Monday night.
For most of the night, the biggest names in Tampa Bay’s lineup were doing exactly what the club had been waiting for. Aranda got the Rays started.
Caminero delivered the swing that put them in front. Díaz finished the job.
Aranda, who had been hitless in the ALCS, stepped in during the third inning with two outs and Díaz at second base. Facing left-hander Foster Griffin, he lined a 1-0 sweeper to center field to bring Díaz home and tie the game at 1-1.
Caminero then supplied the biggest jolt in the sixth. With two runners aboard and nobody out, he ripped a tiebreaking double to left field off Daniel Espino to give Tampa Bay the lead. It was only his second RBI of the postseason, but it looked and felt like the breakthrough moment he had been chasing.
That was a sharp response after an uncharacteristic Game 3, when Caminero went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. Rays manager Kevin Cash had said before Game 4 that the 23-year-old was “highly motivated to get going, and rightfully so,” while also stressing he wasn’t worried about his approach.
“I don't think Junior is concerned one bit. He was playing dominos last night after the ballgame with the guys,” Cash said Saturday afternoon.
“I talked to him this morning. He's got the biggest smile in the clubhouse on his face.
He's ready to get a bat in his hands.”
Caminero backed that up in the fourth inning even before the RBI double. He sent a 110.7 mph fly ball with a 29-degree launch angle to deep center, a shot that would have been gone almost any other time.
Statcast had tracked 264 previous balls in that exact range; all 264 were home runs. Caminero’s ended in Petey Halpin’s glove at the wall for the first out of the inning.
He didn’t need long to make up for it. In the sixth, after driving in the go-ahead run on a 110.2 mph drive over third baseman José Ramírez, Caminero turned toward the Rays’ dugout and celebrated with a finger over his closed lips.
The Rays kept adding from there. In the seventh, Richie Palacios and Taylor Walls teamed up for a double steal that moved two runners into scoring position.
After Díaz struck out, Aranda grounded a ball through the right side of Cleveland’s drawn-in infield, and it rolled under Chase DeLauter’s glove in right field, allowing both runs to score as Aranda advanced to third. Chandler Simpson then brought him home with a sacrifice fly to right.
Díaz put the exclamation point on the night in the ninth, launching an 0-2 fastball from Matt Festa just over the right-field fence for a two-run homer. It was his first postseason home run since he hit two against the A’s in the 2019 AL Wild Card Game, his first playoff appearance with Tampa Bay. Earlier in the series, Díaz became the Rays’ all-time leader in postseason games played.
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