Junior Caminero picked up his 40th home run and 100th RBI on Tuesday in Tampa Bay's dramatic 6-5 win over the Seattle Mariners.

TAMPA, Fla. — Junior Caminero and his wife Francesca have a baby daughter coming in November, and the superstar Tampa Bay Rays third baseman picked up a gift for her Tuesday night. 

Caminero hit his 40th home run of the season in a 6-5 win over the Seattle Mariners at Steinbrenner Field. Rays officials retrieved the ball and put it in a case for him. He was showing it off during his postgame press conference.

He knows exactly where it’s going, too — straight to his little girl’s bedroom. She will share this special 2025 season, his first full year in the big leagues, with him

“When she grows, she'll be able to have it,” he said after the game. “There is a lot of emotion for me right now. So I say, the dream came true. 

“I put in work in the Dominican (Republic) in the offseason a lot, and now that happened — 40 homers and 100 RBI. So thank you, God, for me staying healthy, and for my teammates giving me the support every day, every year. It means a lot.

There were a lot of heroes for the Rays during their fifth-straight win, which evened their record to 69-69 and got them within 3.5 games off the Mariners for the final wild card spot. But Caminero’s heroics stood out the most. 

He had an RBI single in the first inning, hit his big homer in the sixth inning to tie the game at 3-3 and then had a huge two-run double in the seventh inning to give the Rays a 6-4 lead. 

His four RBIs gave him 100 for the year. He’s just the seventh Rays player to reach that milestone. Carlos Pena did it three times, and Fred McGriff, Aubrey Huff and Evan Longoria did it twice. Jorge Cantu and Austin Meadows reached it once. Meadows, in 2021, was the last Rays hitter to get there.

“We're talking about it because you don't see it very often: 40 and 100,” Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said. “And to do it at 22 years old is just really, really impressive. I’m really happy for him, proud of him, the work that he puts in. 

“That home run was huge in the moment, and the two RBIs might have been even bigger in the moment. Even that last play right there — that ball’s hit a mile up in the air, and nobody was catching it but him. That’s kind of the player that you want out there. He has just done a tremendous job and had a great year."

Rays starter Drew Rasmussen allowed three solo home runs in the fourth, but got through five innings with just one other hit allowed.

Bryan Baker pitched a perfect sixth but Edwin Uceta struggled with him command in the seventh, loading the bases with three walks. Cash brought in Kevin Kelly, who’d been in Triple-A for the past month, to face home run leader Cal Raleigh with two outs. He struck him out to end the threat.

Kelly also pitched a perfect eighth, and the Griffin Jax came in to close it out in the ninth. But he gave up two walks and a single, and Cash went to lefty Garrett Cleavinger instead. Mitch Garver hit a sacrifice fly to make it 6-5, but he got Randy Arozarena to fly out and then Raleigh popped up with two on to end the game.

Raleigh, who his hit 51st home run in the fourth, stranded five base runners in his last two at-bats.

“That was an incredible nine innings of baseball to watch,” Rasmussen said.