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Junior Caminero hits 45th home run, one shy of Rays record, in loss to Blue Jays

Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times on

Published in Baseball

TORONTO — Junior Caminero hit his 45th homer and Jonathan Aranda went deep in his first at-bat since breaking his left wrist on July 31, but it wasn’t enough for the Rays to slow the Blue Jays’ push for the American League East title.

The Jays won, 4-2, Friday at sold-out Rogers Centre and can clinch their first division title since 2015 as soon as Saturday with another win and a Yankees loss.

Caminero moved to within one home run of Carlos Pena’s single-season franchise record set in 2007. Caminero also picked up his 110th RBI; only three Rays totaled more in a season — Evan Longoria had 113 in 2009, Jorge Cantu 117 in 2005 and Pena 121 in 2007.

The Rays dropped to 77-83, their most losses since 2016, when they went 68-94 in Kevin Cash’s second season as manager.

The Blue Jays grabbed a quick lead off Rays starter Adrian Houser, as George Springer led off the first with a double and Nathan Lukes, who spent six years in the Rays minor league system, followed with an RBI single.

The Rays took a 2-1 lead, and quieted the crowd of 42,184, in the second. Caminero led off against Shane Bieber with a homer that hit the top of the right-field fence and bounced over. Six pitches later, Aranda laced a ball at 108.1 mph that cleared the right-center-field fence.

 

The Blue Jays tied it in the second when Daulton Varsho doubled with one out and Ernie Clement scored him with a two-out single.

Houser gave Toronto the lead in the fifth. After a one-out single by Springer, Houser left a 1-0 change-up over the plate and Lukes crushed it 399 feet over the right-center-field fence.

Houser went 2-3 with a 4.79 ERA over 10 starts for the Rays after they acquired him from the White Sox on July 31 to replace Zack Littell, who they traded earlier to the Reds. Overall, Houser, who will be a free agent after the season, went 8-5, 3.31.

Miscellany

Outfielder Everson Pereira, who left Thursday’s game with low back tightness, was placed on the 10-day injured list, which opened a spot on the active roster for Aranda. ... Yandy Diaz, who left Thursday’s game after two at-bats with right groin tightness, returned to the lineup.


©2025 Tampa Bay Times. Visit at tampabay.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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