Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Junior Caminero left their 1-0 win over the Cleveland Guardians early on Tuesday after he took a ball directly to his jaw.
Caminero fouled a pitch from Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee off the plate in the opening inning of Tuesday’s contest at Progressive Field. The ball hit the plate and bounced right back up to drill Caminero on the right side of his face. He immediately reached up, clearly in a ton of pain, before dropping to the ground behind the plate.
Remarkably, Caminero remained in the game to finish his at-bat, though he grounded out to Bibee. He was then replaced by Ben Williamson. Caminero is now considered day-to-day with a bruised jaw, though manager Kevin Cash doesn’t expect him to be sidelined for long, if at all.
“He’s OK,” Cash said, via MLB.com. “He’s in really good spirits and I would expect him to be in the lineup tomorrow. That ball really came off the plate hard and I’m just glad that he’s in a pretty good spot right now.”
Caminero, 22, got his MLB start with the Guardians. He was dealt to the Rays in 2021, and entered Tuesday’s game with a .259 batting average and a team-high eight home runs and 15 RBIs.
Even without Caminero around for most of the contest, Tampa Bay picked up the one-run win after a dominant outing on the mound from Nick Martinez. He allowed just three hits and lasted seven full innings. Jonathan Aranda drove in a run in the fifth, marking his third straight game with an RBI, to get the Rays on the board.
The Rays have now won six straight to get to 18-11 on the season, and are a near-perfect 13-1 against American League opponents this spring. The two teams will wrap up the three-game series on Wednesday afternoon.
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