ST. PETERSBURG — The win was important. And the no-hit bid was entertaining.
But the most encouraging part of Thursday’s 13-2 victory against the Royals was seeing Junior Caminero circle the bases in the first inning.
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Also, in the fifth inning.
And again in the eighth.
If the Rays are going to stay atop the wild-card picture in the American League, they’re going to need Caminero to carry an oversized load of the offense. And while the third baseman has been getting on base at a far better clip than last season, his power numbers have declined.
Before the first three-homer game of his major-league career on Thursday, Caminero had just three home runs in his previous 31 games.
Caminero has been hitting the ball just as hard — at 93.2 mph, his average exit velocity going into Thursday was among the highest in the league and was slightly better than 2025 — but he’s been hitting far more ground balls and line drives than ideal.
“I know it’s (been) a running joke, but he’s trying to get the ball up in the air,” manager Kevin Cash said. “Every pitcher in baseball is trying to not allow him to get extended. When he does get extended and gets it elevated, the ball goes as long as anybody in baseball.”
While his swing has been flatter in 2026, the Rays determined it was less of a launch-angle problem and more of an issue with his stride. Caminero was stepping slightly toward the plate, which gave his swing more of a closed appearance when his foot landed. Hitting coach Chad Mottola has been showing Caminero video of his swing in Houston last season — when he hit three homers in a three-game span — to get him to stride more toward the pitcher.
“The idea was to get him to land a little more neutral instead of landing closed,” Mottola said. “We kept bringing it to him, kept bringing it to him, and I think he finally grasped it after (Monday) night here when (Michael) Wacha beat him a couple of times inside.”
Caminero, who hit 45 homers last season, hit his 16th on Tuesday night against the Royals. That turned out to be a mere appetizer to Thursday’s performance. Although, to be fair, the third homer was off a 48 mph fastball from infielder Tyler Tolbert, who was brought in to pitch the final inning of the blowout.
“I’m just trying to get a pitch that I can hit, any pitch I can hit well, and if I send it over the fence, (that’s) great,” Caminero said through team interpreter Kevin Vera. “I’m just looking to be selective with my pitches. I’ve been working a lot on my leg kick, I’ve been working with (Mottola), and I’ve gotten good results.”
Caminero’s big afternoon in front of an announced crowd of 14,276 at Tropicana Field was looking like it might take a backseat to Rays pitchers Casey Legumina and Ian Seymour.
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Legumina retired the first four hitters he faced as an opener before giving way to Seymour. The left-hander then proceeded to retire 12 consecutive batters before losing a potential perfect game with a one-out walk to Starling Marte in the sixth.
Seymour went on to throw 6 ⅔ innings of no-hit ball before giving way to Craig Kimbrel in the ninth.
Because it was a combined no-hitter at that point, Cash said it was a fairly easy decision to remove Seymour, who began the season in the bullpen. Seymour, who had not thrown more than 81 pitches in any outing this year, was at 90 pitches when he was removed.
“If his pitch count would have been a little lower, then maybe there’s more consideration (to leaving him in),” Cash said. “But we’re still building him back up. A month ago, he was still a one- or two-inning reliever, throwing maybe 30 pitches an outing, so we’ve got to be really responsible and smart with that.”
Seymour, who said he once took a no-hitter into the ninth inning at Virginia Tech before giving up a string of hits, said he had no problem with coming out of Thursday’s game.
“I definitely knew (it was a no-hitter). I think if I hadn’t walked that guy it would have been a little different situation,” Seymour said. “A perfect (game) is harder than a no-hitter.”
Kimbrel got a strikeout to begin the ninth, but then walked Marte and gave up a two-run homer to Carter Jensen to lose the no-hit bid. The only no-hitter in Rays history was thrown by Matt Garza in 2010. Five Rays pitchers combined for a seven-inning no-hitter in a double-header against Cleveland in 2021, but that’s not recognized by MLB as an official no-hitter. Seymour said he had no complaints about falling short on Thursday.
“I’ll take that every single time,” said Seymour, who lowered his ERA from 4.98 to 4.32 with the outing. “Hopefully, I can build on that momentum.”
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