The Rays sidestepped a major scare Monday night when Junior Caminero and Jonny DeLuca slammed into each other chasing a foul ball in the ninth inning of Tampa Bay’s 7-3 loss to Cleveland in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series at Tropicana Field.
The play started with Brayan Rocchio at the plate, a runner on second and nobody out. Rocchio sent a fly ball high toward the Guardians’ bullpen down the left-field line, and both Rays charged after it.
DeLuca came in from left field, while Caminero retreated from third base. Neither player made the catch, and the two collided hard, with their left shoulders taking most of the impact.
DeLuca went down hard, bounced into the bullpen bench and then got right back up. Caminero stayed upright at first, then sat against the short wall between the field and 162 Landing, clearly hurting after the hit. He was checked on and stayed in the game, eventually returning to third base as “Gonna Fly Now,” the theme from “Rocky,” played over the stadium speakers.
Caminero said afterward that he was all right.
“I feel good. Feel good overall,” Caminero said through interpreter Kevin Vera. “Just my head hurts a little bit, but overall good.”
He said the blow landed mostly in his chest and described the headache as “just kind of the normal aftereffect … of feeling the hit, feeling the blow.” Manager Kevin Cash echoed that assessment, saying Caminero was “OK.”
“I think he got the wind knocked out of him a little bit. I actually didn't even notice that he went down,” Cash said.
“I was looking at DeLuca. He popped up pretty quick, and [I] didn't realize that Cami had fallen down a couple feet behind him.
But I think he just got the wind knocked out of him, and he seems to be totally fine now.”
DeLuca said he felt the collision in his left shoulder and hand, but he doesn’t expect either issue to linger. He also said he believed Caminero would be fine.
DeLuca said the crash was just what can happen when two players are all-in on making a play in a one-run game, especially with a crowd of 35,361 making communication tough.
“Just two guys going hard at it, and obviously it's pretty noisy. It's hard to hear each other,” DeLuca said.
“That's about it. I think Cami's good.
I'm pretty good.”
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