Junior Caminero’s night in Game 4 of the World Series ended early, but not before his legs helped spark Tampa Bay’s rally.
The Rays third baseman left with an apparent injury after reaching on a throwing error to open the bottom of the 12th inning in St. Petersburg, Florida. With Tampa Bay down 3-2, Caminero chopped a routine grounder to the left side, then came aboard when Joey Ortiz’s throw to first baseman Jake Bauers short-hopped the bag.
Caminero was safe, but he came up limping.
He initially stayed in the game and pushed all the way to third on a single by Liam Hicks, before Tampa Bay opted to replace him with pinch runner Cedric Mullins. That move ended up mattering in a big way.
Mullins later scored on a single by Jonny DeLuca to pull the Rays even at 3-3, a run that became a major swing in the series. Tampa Bay then finished the job with back-to-back singles from Chandler Simpson and Ben Williamson. Williamson’s hit brought in Nick Fortes for the winning run in a 4-3 walk-off victory.
The win gave the Rays their first of the series and snapped Milwaukee’s nine-game postseason winning streak. It also forced a Game 5 on Wednesday, Oct. 28.
Milwaukee had grabbed a 3-2 lead in the top of the 12th on Cooper Pratt’s solo home run, the first run by either club since the fifth inning. That blast put the Brewers one inning from the first championship in franchise history.
Instead, the Rays kept fighting, and the home crowd at Tropicana Field got its payoff before the night was over. Caminero’s hustle and persistence had a hand in getting them there.
In Other News...
Rays Kept Their Season Alive But Game 5 Just Got Tougher
The Rays kept their season alive with a 12-inning win in Game 4, trimming Milwaukees series lead to 3-1 and buying themselves at least one more chance to keep this thing going. Nick Martinez was a big part of the rescue effort, giving Tampa Bay two scoreless innings on the kind of short turnaround teams usually try to avoid, while the bullpen handled the rest of the heavy lifting in a game that demanded just about every available arm.
Kevin Cash made it clear afterward that the victory came with a price, because getting through an extra-inning playoff game meant leaning hard on pitchers the club may need again immediately. Game 5 now shifts from a simple elimination test to a planning exercise for Tampa Bay, with the staff having to sort through who can still answer the call and how far the Rays can push the group that just helped them survive. [Read more 🡒]
Rays World Series Pregame Took A Weird Turn Before Game 4
The pregame stage for Game 4 of the World Series took an odd detour before the first pitch, when FOX Sports analyst David Ortiz told the broadcast crew he had been stuck in an elevator. Kevin Burkhardt, Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter all wound up talking through the hiccup on air, turning a routine lead-in into a surprisingly memorable aside before the biggest game of the season.
Ortiz said he was not claustrophobic, but the situation still rattled him enough to become a topic on the set. For a national broadcast built around the matchup on the field, the unexpected delay gave the production a little extra drama of its own and added one more strange note to a night already carrying World Series pressure. [Read more 🡒]
Rays Keep World Series Hopes Alive After Wild Extra-Inning Escape
The Rays were staring at the end of their season in Game 4 against the Brewers, and instead got the kind of chaotic night that can swing an entire World Series. With multiple lead changes and big relief innings from Nick Martinez and Bryan Baker, Tampa Bay kept itself close long enough for the game to spill into extra innings, where every pitch felt season-defining.
Ben Williamson eventually supplied the finish, lining the walk-off hit that sent the Rays home with a win and pushed the series to a Game 5. For a club that needed every out just to survive, the victory was equal parts bullpen grit and late-game nerve, the kind of escape that can change the mood of a series in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]