Caminero's 437-Foot Blast Flips the Script, Rays Roll 6-1
Junior Caminero hit a 437-foot, three-run homer in the first inning that swung Tampa Bay's win probability from 68% to 84% — and the Diamondbacks never recovered. Final: TB 6, ARI 1.
Arizona actually drew first blood. Geraldo Perdomo launched a 421-foot solo shot to right center in the first inning to put the Diamondbacks up 1-0, and for a moment it looked like Zac Gallen might have something to work with. He didn't. Caminero stepped up in the bottom of the first and absolutely ended the conversation — a 437-foot blast to center that scored Díaz and Aranda, flipping a 1-0 deficit into a 3-1 Tampa Bay lead and swinging the home win probability from 68% to 84% in a single swing. That was the ballgame, functionally speaking.
Nick Martinez did his job without being spectacular. He went 5.2 innings, allowed 6 hits and 1 earned run, walked nobody, and struck out 3. The Diamondbacks put runners on but couldn't convert, and Gallen — who entered with a reputation as one of Arizona's most reliable arms — had a rough night, surrendering 5 earned runs on 4 hits over 6.2 innings with 0 strikeouts. That zero in the K column is the number that jumps off the page. The Rays didn't need to overpower him; they just kept putting the ball in play and making him work. Corbin Carroll went 2-for-4 for Arizona, and Perdomo finished 2-for-4 with his homer, but the offense around them was quiet when it mattered.
The seventh inning was the punctuation mark. Cedric Mullins hit a 433-foot solo homer to right center to make it 4-1, then Díaz singled to right to score Feduccia, and Aranda doubled to center to score Díaz — a three-run frame that turned a manageable deficit into a blowout. Díaz finished 2-for-3 with 2 runs scored and an RBI; Aranda went 1-for-3 with an RBI. Craig Kimbrel and Kevin Kelly each threw a clean inning in relief to close it out. The story of the night was Tampa Bay's ability to pile on in bunches — five of their six runs came in multi-run sequences — while Arizona's lineup, which appears to still be sorting out its roster construction with Max Kepler just activated from an 80-game suspension, couldn't string anything together after Perdomo's first-inning shot. This looks like a Rays team that knows exactly how to win a game like this.