Junior Caminero arrived in Milwaukee with his bat already making noise. During Thursday’s batting practice at American Family Field, the 22-year-old Rays slugger drove a ball into the center-field videoboard hard enough to damage part of the display.
That was one swing before the World Series, not one that will appear in the box score. Still, it added another jolt to a week in which Caminero has looked ready for every larger stage placed in front of him.
Quick facts
- Game 1 of the World Series is Friday at 8 p.m. ET at American Family Field in Milwaukee.
- The game will air on FOX and FOX One, with FOX Deportes also carrying the broadcast.
- Caminero damaged a section of the center-field videoboard during Thursday batting practice.
- The Rays third baseman is coming off a pennant-clinching home run in Game 6 of the ALCS against Cleveland.
Tampa Bay’s trip to the Fall Classic was sealed Monday when Caminero supplied the late punctuation against the Guardians. In the bottom of the seventh inning of Game 6, he ripped a shot off the left-field foul pole to put an emphatic finish on the club’s American League championship.
The homer was followed by a notably deliberate trip around the bases, the kind of trot that belongs to a player who understands the moment and has no interest in hurrying past it. Cleveland had run into the wrong swing at the wrong time.
Now Caminero gets the World Series stage, and Milwaukee’s videoboard has already had an early introduction. Batting-practice damage does not carry into Friday night, but it was another reminder that the Rays’ young power threat is arriving hot.
