The Tampa Bay Rays — rightfully so, given their dominance in the American League thus far — had a strong showing at the All-Star Game this week, chief among them Junior Caminero.
At still 23-years young, which I feel the broadcasts should have mentioned even more often than they frequently did, returned to the Home Run Derby he placed second in last year, and in the opening round belted 13 homeruns — only 12 of which counted after some umpiring worthy of the FIFA World Cup when his final belted longball was not recognized of having wrapped around the foul pole down the left field line — as the Rays third baseman boasted the quickest and clearly strongest swing of the Derby, per the HitFX making the rounds on twitter throughout the Netflix live event. Nine of his homeruns travelled over 420 feet, and he maxed out his exit velocity as an astonishing 116 mph.
Caminero was easily on to the second round in a Derby full of new limiting rules that seemed destined to shorten the Derby to an hour long affair with just 20 swings allowed per athlete in the opening round, and with that number decreasing in later rounds, but like many under pundits I shouldn’t have worried. It was a strong showing for MLB.
Despite being one of the last players to hit in the opening round, Caminero was perplexingly asked to step up first in the second round when other players benefitting from an hour’s rest, a decision so strange I suspected the cameras to cut to Gianni Infantino sitting between Rob Manfred and Mohammed bin Salman.
The Home Run Derby is a test of endurance, and Caminero stepped up courageously despite the lack of rest, and proceeded to belt 5 of 15 over the fence in Philadelphia, including a 491 foot moonshot that would be the longest longball of the night.
It was not enough to stave off eventual winner, St. Louis’s Jordan Walker, whose winnings from the tournament purse would outweigh his own annual salary, and who also benefitted from some good fortune ripped from the World Cup headlines, as his pitcher mistakenly grabbed one of the regular baseballs — as opposed to the infamous magenta magic balls that represent the final opportunity for competitors — on his Derby winning blast.
Caminero was the starting third baseman on the following night in a night full of pomp and circumstance to honor America’s 250th birthday, my favorite being a giant document mirroring the Declaration of Independence that each starter signed as they were announced on the field. In the DRB slack chat during the game, Brett Rutherford agreed on the hilarity given the document was being signed by, “a bunch of dudes who aren’t American,” to which I responded: “Neither were any of the signatories at that moment if you think about it.”
Caminero would bat the runners around in his first plate appearance, and then suffer another cruel twist of fate in his second at bat when National League pitcher Riley O’Brien — a relatively surprising pitcher to be selected in the first hour given the notoriety up and down Dave Roberts’s bench — ran a fastball up and in on Caminero, striking him in the hand.
Caminero held his composure well, then sprinted to the dugout where x-rays were announced as negative for any fractures. Per Enrique Rojas of ESPN, translated from Spanish, “Junior Caminero said he’s fine, that he had a big scare, that the pitcher called him to apologize, and that he plans to play on Friday, when the Rays’ season resumes.”
Two Rays pitchers would be called upon later in the Classic, starting with Nick Martinez — making his first All-Star Game appearance just shy of his 36th birthday, a well earned honor for a veteran who has stepped in as a leader in the Rays clubhouse.
Martinez’s clean appearance helped the American League rack up 15 strikeouts on the night, a feat that was not missed by Martinez postgame:
“Obviously not easy to do,” said Rays starter Nick Martinez, who threw a 1-2-3 fifth. “Hat’s off to these guys, and I’ve got a lot of guys to thank for speeding them up so that I could use my changeup.” [mlb.com]
Drew Rasmussen followed Martinez not too long after, being trusted to face three batters to start the seventh. In his second consecutive All-Star Game, Ras allowed one walk, and struck out Miami SS Otto Lopez on a sweet sweeper after feeding five fastballs.
Rays closer Bryan Baker would be called upon to close out the four-nil victory worthy yet again of a World Cup result, facing the final two batters of the game, and who’d quipped previously that he was accustomed to spending his time on the beach during the All-Star Break.
I would be remiss to not mention the joy I felt seeing any Rays pitcher find success in this stadium, which has haunted me since 2008’s painful World Series loss that hurt all the more for the sting of unfairness and poor weather that haunted those games in Pennsylvania.
Baker’s battery mate was former teammate Adley Rutschman, which led to some appreciative perspective from the Rays reliever post game, and which adds necessary perspective. For some of the players in this game it’s yet another honor for one of the game’s best (it was Mike Trout’s 12th appearance this summer), but for others it’s a once-in-a-lifetime honor. Both are moments to be savored.
Post game, Rays co-owner and CEO Ken Babby took to twitter to add fuel to the fire building for a new Rays stadium, which must be a requirement for the Rays to someday host the All-Star Game, given that this franchise remains the only one to never receive that honor.
As Darby Robinson quipped in the slack chat, “It’s coming home (and I’m not talking about England and the World Cup).”
If you liked pitching and strikeouts, it was a fun night of baseball and celebration in the city of brotherly love.
