As this season rounds into the final month, the Rays are seeing glimpses of what to look forward to in 2026 and hopefully many years to come. And it centers squarely on the left side of the infield and two 22 year olds: Junior Caminero and Carson Williams.
This is only his 2nd game in the majors, but Carson Williams has already provided quite a bit of excitement. Smooth as can be in the field, Carson showed off his athleticism several times already. In today’s game, Williams was able to snag a slightly off line Fortes throw to catch and whip tag Wilson Contreras trying to steal.
At the plate, Williams was able to show off his quick bat with a couple well struck grounders. First time up, his 103 mph grounder was snagged, but he later got his revenge snapping one past 3rd for his first major league double.
After a Fortes walk, Chandler Simpson gave a reminder that there’s another young and exciting (and quite unique) player also playing on the left side, a bit further back into the outfield. Chandler smacked perhaps the longest ball of his young major league career, getting ahold of a liner to centerfield, catching the Cards OF playing up on him, and got a triple to the wall driving in both Williams and Fortes.
Of course, the star of the Rays, the king of their left side, and rapidly climbing the ranks of most prolific Rays rookie home run hitter, Junior Caminero, was not going to miss out on the party.
In the 5th, after walks from Josh Lowe, Williams, and Simpson, Junior got his chance to break the game wide open. In his first two at bats, Caminero smacked the two hardest hit balls of the entire game, a groundout at 114 mph and a lineout at 113 mph. Third time was the charm, hitting it higher and just a touch softer (still a blistering 106 off the bat), Caminero hit a grand slam to give the Rays a 5-0 lead for his 37th HR on the year.
These contributions from the left side of the Rays position corps would prove to be more than enough for the Rays arms today.
Ryan Pepiot, coming off an excellent start in San Francisco that quickly turned into a pumpkin at the very bitter end, was able to finish strong today leaving with his head held high. Keeping his pitch count and innings count in mind, Pepiot was as judicious as possible, cruising through 5 innings giving up just 1 hit and 1 walk to go with 3 Ks. At just 63 pitches and after the Rays just got their lead extended, Cash went to the pen to finish off this one.
Some might have been a bit shocked to see the quick hook. Those same folks I’m sure were complaining last week about leaving Pepiot in a few batters too long. Ultimately Pepiot is nearing his career high for innings on the year, and the extended lead was enough cushion to save his arm for the next round.
Edwin Uceta continued his excellent 2nd half cruising unscathed through the 6th. In the 7th, with the lead now 7-0, Mason Montgomery took over. Unfortunately, Monty’s extremely poor command lead him into the brink of disaster once more. For a change of pace, the first bit of poor command came from a wayward thrown fielding ball, after a swinging bunt had Monty rushing to get Burleson leading off the inning. A K, a walk, another K, and a single later and the Cards were on the board and threatening for more. Brian Van Belle would make his Rays debut and clean up the jam with a nice and easy infield pop up to end the last real threat for St Louis.
Van Belle looked quite sharp, with his change-up making Cardinals batters dance, with a whopping 6 whiffs on the 14 change-ups he threw, good for an elite 43% CSW (Called Strikes + Whiffs rate) on the pitch.
After the extremely rare and unique Saturday mid series off day (to accommodate parking issues with the Bucs last preseason game) and lengthy rain delays today, the Rays were clearly ready to play some ball. Former Rays prospect, Mathew Libretore, best known for being the trade chip that brought Randy Arozarena to the Rays, pitched quite well early. But unlike so many Rays games this year, they were able to keep in the pitcher’s duel, work some good contact, not get frustrated by early lack of success, before finally breaking through.
You almost knew it had to be a good day since Christopher Morel got the Rays on the board first and went 3-4 overall. Fittingly enough, on the day when the left side of the Rays future showed up so brilliantly, Morel’s HR that gave the Rays the lead they would not relinquish was, of course, hit deep over the left field wall.
All left was all right today.
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