By Field Level Media
Oct 20 (Field Level Media) - ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The Tampa Bay Rays are headed back to the World Series, 18 years to the day since they captured the first American League pennant in franchise history.
Junior Caminero and Yandy Diaz each belted a two-run homer, helping Tampa Bay advance to the World Series for the third time in franchise history with a 7-3 victory over the Cleveland Guardians on Monday.
The Rays recorded their third straight win to capture the American League
Championship Series in six games.
Tampa Bay will visit Milwaukee for Game 1 of the World Series on Friday. The Brewers won two of the three games against the visiting Rays in the regular season in a series played March 30-April 1.
Tampa Bay was unsuccessful in its previous two trips to the Fall Classic. The Rays fell in five games to the Philadelphia Phillies in 2008 and in six games to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020.
Caminero celebrated his first career postseason homer by emphatically slapping his chest before rounding first base and posing with his arms folded at home plate. The latter gesture was a nod to former Tampa Bay slugger Randy Arozarena, who was in the crowd on Monday at Tropicana Field.
"Tampa, this is for you," Caminero screamed during his postgame interview with TNT Sports, doing his best LeBron James imitation after the latter helped the Cleveland Cavaliers win the 2016 NBA Finals.
Diaz, who guaranteed after Game 5 that "we're going to win tomorrow," provided the exclamation point in the eighth inning on Monday with a homer over the left field wall.
"A lot of people didn't believe me, but here are the results," Diaz said of predicting the Game 6 victory.
Diaz was signed by Cleveland in 2013 out of Cuba and traded to Tampa Bay in 2018. Caminero was signed by Cleveland in 2019 out of the Dominican Republic and traded to Tampa Bay in 2021.
Tampa Bay's Richie Palacios, who also began his career with Cleveland, laced a two-run double into the right-center-field gap in the second inning to open the scoring.
That was enough offense for Freddy Peralta (2-0), who allowed one run on five hits and three walks while striking out three in 5 1/3 innings. He went 2-0 in three appearances (two starts) during the series, yielding one run on nine hits in 12 innings while striking out nine to earn ALCS MVP honors.
"This is for the boys," Peralta said after being presented with the award.
Cleveland's Nathaniel Lowe had an RBI single in the sixth inning, and Rays reliever Ian Seymour issued a bases-loaded walk to Patrick Bailey and then hit Angel Martinez with his next pitch to trim Tampa Bay's lead to 5-3 in the eighth. Kevin Kelly relieved Seymour and struck out Brayan Rocchio on three pitches to end the inning.
After Diaz's blast restored the Rays' four-run lead, Bryan Baker retired the side in order in the ninth to end the game.
"Let it hurt. Let it sink in. Let it fuel you this winter," Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said of his message to his players.
Caminero chased Cleveland opener Shawn Armstrong with a single to lead off the second inning. Chandler Simpson reached on a fielder's choice off Tim Herrin (0-1) and promptly stole second base. Victor Mesa Jr. walked before both runners advanced a base and later scored on Palacios' double.
Herrin permitted one run on one hit in two-thirds of an inning.
Tampa Bay tacked on in the third inning when Caminero scored on Jonny DeLuca's sacrifice fly for a 3-0 lead.
(--Field Level Media)
