Junior Caminero Just Did Something Only Bryce Harper Had Done in the Last Decade

Tampa Bay has a problem. And by problem, I mean a 22-year-old third baseman who can’t stop hitting baseballs into orbit.

Junior Caminero launched a 463-foot home run on Sunday against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was the kind of swing that makes you stop scrolling and just watch the replay a few times. The ball didn’t just clear the fence at Tropicana Field. It cleared it by a lot.

That blast was Caminero’s seventh homer in his last six games. According to MLB reporter Sarah Langs, that ties him with 2015 Bryce Harper, 1965 Willie Horton, and 1964 Boog Powell for the most home runs in a six-game span at age 22 or younger since 1900. That’s not a list. That’s a club with a very exclusive guest list.

A streak worth paying attention to

Caminero has now homered in four straight games. That includes a three-homer game against Kansas City on June 25. According to MLB.com, only three players his age or younger have had a longer homer streak since 1900: Ronald Acuña Jr. in 2018, Brian McCann in 2006, and Jack Clark in 1978. All of them went deep in five straight games. Caminero’s sitting at four and feeling like he might not stop.

The 463-foot shot on Sunday was the seventh-longest homer at Tropicana Field since Statcast started tracking in 2015. It was also the Rays’ longest home run since 2021, behind only a 467-foot Jonathan Aranda blast in Baltimore almost exactly a year ago.

So yeah, the kid is hitting the ball hard.

Rays are quietly doing damage

Tampa Bay beat Arizona 5-1 on Sunday. The win pushed them to 48-33, which is good enough for a half-game lead over the Yankees in the American League East. Nobody expected the Rays to be here, not really. They lost Wander Franco. They dealt with injuries. And yet here they are, sitting at the top of a division that was supposed to belong to New York or maybe Baltimore.

Caminero has 22 home runs on the season. He’s doing it at 22 years old. The Rays have a young core and a real shot at winning the division if he keeps this up.

Next up is a Tuesday game against the Royals. Kansas City probably isn’t thrilled about it.