The Rays left Anaheim with more than a win on Sunday. They also left with a needed jolt of momentum after turning a tied game into an 8-3 victory over the Angels with a late surge.
That turning point arrived in the eighth inning, when Junior Caminero broke a 3-3 tie with a two-run homer to left field off reliever Sam Bachman. The swing gave the Rays control and changed the tone of a game that had stayed tight despite early pressure from both sides.
Caminero’s big swing changes the game
Caminero entered the at-bat after a quiet weekend and had been 1-for-11 in the series before driving a slider out for his 15th home run of the season. He said he tried to keep things simple in the moment, and Kevin Cash said the dugout could feel the lift immediately.
“The dugout got excited. It was a huge homer,” Cash said. “Things haven’t gone our way, and it felt like after that hit, it started to go our way.”
After Caminero’s home run, the Rays kept the pressure on with a two-out rally that included an RBI single from Hunter Feduccia and a two-run homer from Victor Mesa Jr. That five-run inning pushed Bachman’s ERA from 1.99 to 3.31 and put the game out of reach.
Early offense and steady pitching kept Tampa Bay in front
The Rays had already built an early cushion with a run in the third and another in the fourth. Chandler Simpson delivered a two-run single to center field that scored Victor Mesa Jr. and Jonathan Aranda, and Ben Williamson followed with his first home run as a Ray, a solo shot to center off Drew Pomeranz.
Cash said the club was pleased to string together production from top to bottom of the lineup after a difficult stretch. The Rays had lost the first two games of the series, but the offense finally found enough timely contact to support the pitching plan.
That plan leaned on opener Casey Legumina, who handled the first 1 2/3 innings and allowed one run on two hits. Ian Seymour followed as the bulk reliever and worked 3 1/3 innings with three strikeouts, while Kevin Kelly added two scoreless innings to hold the game steady.
Rays bullpen shuts the door
The Angels had a chance to answer in the eighth when Craig Kimbrel lost command, hitting a batter and issuing two walks to load the bases with one out. Garrett Cleavinger then struck out Trey Mancini and Oswald Peraza back-to-back to strand the runners and protect the lead before Bryan Baker finished the ninth.
“[Kevin Kelly] came in, kind of quieted — Anaheim really swung the bats well all series and [he] threw up some zeros,” Cash said. “Cleve came in and got two huge strikeouts for us, and then handed it to Baker to finish it off.”
The win keeps the Rays in second place in the AL East as they head to Los Angeles for a matchup with the Dodgers. Cedric Mullins said the team has been searching for a sustained stretch of good results, and Sunday’s comeback offered one more step in that direction.
“We’ve [been] going back and forth with getting some good runs going, getting some good stretches going, and then cutting ourselves short a little bit,” Mullins said. “So one step forward each day, [and we’ll] take it into L.A.”