Junior Caminero notched a career-high six RBIs, highlighted by a three-run, opposite-field homer that capped a five-run seventh inning, as the Tampa Bay Rays throttled the host Houston Astros 13-3 on Thursday in the opener of a four-game series.
A half-inning after the Astros completed a rally from a three-run deficit, the Rays responded when the first six batters in the top of the seventh reached safely against reliever Bryan King (3-1).
King entered his 26th appearance third in the majors with a 23.7 hard-hit percentage. The Rays immediately challenged his standing, starting with a leadoff single from Josh Lowe that produced an exit velocity of 99.4 mph. King hit Brandon Lowe and surrendered an RBI single to Yandy Diaz that snapped the 3-3 deadlock. Jonathan Aranda produced an RBI double with a 96.8 mph exit velocity that upped the lead to 5-3.
Caminero followed with the decisive blow, a 385-foot blast to right-center at 103.5 mph that scored Diaz and Aranda and built the lead to 8-3. Caminero and Brandon Lowe share the team lead with 11 home runs.
King, who recorded only one out, had allowed four earned runs all season before the Rays tagged him with five runs on five hits. Tampa Bay improved to 8-1 over its last nine games while Houston fell to 7-2 over its last nine home games.
Caminero added a two-run double in the Rays’ five-run eighth, his third hit. Diaz, Aranda and Jose Caballero recorded two hits each for Tampa Bay, which totaled 14 hits.
The Rays jumped to a 3-0 lead courtesy of a Diaz sacrifice fly in the first off starter Ryan Gusto, a throwing error by Yainer Diaz that allowed Chandler Simpson to score in the fourth and a Caminero RBI single that plated Aranda with two outs in the fifth.
Yainer Diaz led the charge back with a 430-foot blast to center off Rays starter Shane Baz, his sixth home run keying a two-run fifth. Jose Altuve blasted his ninth homer in the sixth off Baz, a leadoff shot that knotted the score at 3-3.
Over 5 2/3 innings, Baz yielded three runs on seven with no walks and three strikeouts. Edwin Uceta (4-1) relieved Baz and worked out of a first-and-third situation to end the inning.
Gusto gave up two runs on four hits, walked three and struck out four in 3 2/3 innings.
–Field Level Media
