Tampa Bay finished the job in the Bronx on Wednesday night, holding on for a 4-3 win in ALDS Game 3 to sweep the Yankees out of October in three games. The Rays are headed to the ALCS for the first time since 2020. Junior Caminero celebrated by miming a broom at Yankee Stadium so nobody could miss the point.
The broom was the warm-up. Caminero’s postgame interview with ESPN’s Enrique Rojas, translated from Spanish, was the part that will live on Yankees fan accounts all winter. “Let the Yankees fans talk now. Let them watch the whole thing. Talk now. What ya gonna say? Daaaaa Yankees lose.”
He kept going in the clubhouse. “We’re feeling great. The best team in the world right here,” Caminero said, before adding, “We’re not yet done. Now, the Yankees lose. Yankees lose!”
How Tampa Bay Actually Won Game 3
Ryan Vilade put the Rays ahead with a solo homer off Max Fried in the fourth that barely cleared the short porch in right field. Fried was sharp otherwise, striking out seven without walking anybody over 5 2/3 innings. On most nights that line wins a playoff game.
Victor Mesa Jr. ended Fried’s night in the sixth with a two-run shot that made it 4-2. Caminero, who scored earlier in that inning, claimed partial credit afterward: “That’s my bat right there. If he doesn’t use it, he doesn’t homer.”
New York had its answer in the bottom of the sixth and lost it to replay. Anthony Volpe’s drive to left was ruled a two-run homer that would have tied the game, then overturned when video showed a fan reaching over the wall and touching the ball. Volpe got an RBI double, the Yankees got one run instead of two, and Bryan Baker closed out the ninth.
Caminero Has Earned the Right to Talk
You can be annoyed by the trolling, but you have to get past the resume first. Caminero hit 42 home runs with 101 RBI in the regular season and collected three hits in three games against the Yankees. He is the best player on the AL’s top seed and he knows it.
This also was not a first offense. The Rays clinched the AL East at Yankee Stadium in late September, and Caminero said then that he did not care whether Tampa Bay drew the Yankees or the Red Sox in the first round. He was right, and now he gets to say so with a series win behind him.
The Yankees have no rebuttal available until next March. They scored five runs on 12 hits across the three games. It was also the third straight October they have watched an opponent celebrate on their own grass, and they still have not won a World Series since 2009. Giancarlo Stanton struck out as a pinch hitter in the eighth and Trent Grisham struck out to end the season.
Tampa Bay now waits. The Rays open the ALCS at home on Monday against the White Sox or the Guardians, a series Cleveland extended with a 9-3 win in Game 3 on Wednesday. Whoever arrives, Caminero will almost certainly have something ready for them too.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.