Rays' Junior Caminero homers in 6th straight game in 4-0 win over Royals

Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times on Jul 1, 2026

Published in Baseball

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Junior Caminero didn’t take long Wednesday night to extend his remarkable power show and lead the Tampa Bay Rays to a season-best-matching seventh straight win, beating the Kansas City Royals 4-0.

Caminero crushed the first pitch he saw from Royals starter Seth Lugo over the left-field fence, extending his streak of consecutive games with a home run to a franchise-record-tying six.

It was Caminero’s ninth homer over his last eight games, also the most in franchise history over that span.

The only other Rays player to homer in six straight games is Carlos Peña, who did so in 2010.

Overall, Caminero is the 33rd player in the modern era (since 1900) to homer in six straight games, and, at 22 years and 361 days old, is the youngest, supplanting Ken Griffey Jr. (who was 23 in 1993).

Over the last 10 seasons, the only other major-leaguers to hit nine home runs over an eight-game span are Kyle Schwarber (Phillies this year, Nationals in 2021), Joey Votto (Reds, 2021) and Nelson Cruz (Twins, 2019).

With the win, the Rays improved their American League-leading record to 50-33 and extended their East division lead over the New York Yankees to 3 1/2 games.

Shane McClanahan took advantage of his three extra days of rest to work six strong shutout innings and earn his first win since May 31.

McClanahan allowed three hits and no walks and struck out four, improving to 7-5 with a 3.05 ERA. Relievers Cole Sulser, Garrett Cleavinger and Kevin Kelly combined to get the final nine outs.

McClanahan will get two extra days before his next start, July 8 against the Yankees, as part of the team’s effort to limit his workload and monitor his health in his first season back after missing two-plus seasons due to arm injuries.

Cedric Mullins also homered and doubled in a run for the Rays, continuing his recent warming trend.

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