Junior Caminero moves his hands, and the baseball feels the
TAMPA– Though he ‘d had hits in each of the previous five games, Junior Caminero felt his hands were a little slow as he swung the bat.He enjoyed video of some winter season league at-bats, talked with striking coach Chad Mottola and teammate Christopher Morel, and made a minor adjustment to their placing ahead of Tuesday’s 3-1 loss to the Royals.The change seemed to settle, as Caminero had a career high-tying three hits, including his team-leading sixth home run, in extending his hitting streak to six games.”The previous games,
I was seeming like I was a bit behind, but thank God, I was able to make that modification,” said Caminero, 21, through team interpreter Eddie Rodriguez.
“(Mottola) told me to simply be myself, and that’s what I did. I made the change. And you guys saw the results.”
And heard them, too.The homer was clocked at 110.6 mph, the hardest by a Ray this season, and an eighth-inning single at 116.5 mph, the greatest exit speed of his profession and 4th greatest by a Ray in the Statcast age (considering that 2015).
“I hope he remembers the modification,” Rays supervisor Kevin Cash joked. “Look, he’s going to strike the ball hard. He’s a huge, strong kid that has a propensity for discovering the barrel to it. They adjust daily. There is constantly something going on. So making an adjustment on a Tuesday. There’s another one most likely beginning a Thursday. They go back and forth, and a lot of that is simply by discussions striking in the cage.”
The Rays are pleased with what Caminero, who went 0-for-4 Wednesday, has done thus far. However he will have to keep working at it.
“I feel like the league has actually pitched him a little in a different way as we have actually gotten a little much deeper into this month heading into the next one,” Cash stated, “and I’m confident Junior has answers when those modifications are needed.”