Ian Seymour Shines in First MLB Start, Junior Caminero Homers Twice in 9-0 Win Over Guardians

Ian Seymour allowed just one hit in five scoreless innings, and Junior Caminero continued his August hot streak with two more home runs as Tampa Bay beat Cleveland 9-0 on Monday night.

Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Junior Caminero (13) celebrates his two-run home run against the Cleveland Guardians. | David Richard-Imagn Images

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Ian Seymour may be a rookie, but he is as calm, cool and collected as they come. Making his first major-league start was no big deal to him, he said, because the crafty left-hander has been doing this his entire life.

It sure looked that way Monday, when the 26-year-old native New Englander became to first lefty to start a game all year for the Tampa Bay Rays. He pitched five innings and only allowed one hit and one walk, striking out eight in the Rays' 9-0 victory.

He was, in a word, spectacular. His second career win, coming over 67 efficient pitches, was a keeper.

“I don’t know if I could have written it up any better in terms of my command and execution,” Seymour told reporters after the game. “I was pretty happy with that.”

After dominating Triple-A at Durham all season, Seymour was called up in June to cover the short-staffed Rays, and he won his first game in Boston, just down the road from his Connecticut home. He came up for good and has made 12 relief appearances. He allowed only two runs in his first 17 innings, but he numbers got skewed when he gave up six runs to the New York Yankees on Aug. 19.

It was a no-brainer, though, to add him to the starting rotation after Joe Boyle was sent down. The Rays like what they have in Seymour, and he provided further proof of that Monday night.

“He’s creating some type of deception, I don’t know,” Rays manager KevinCash said in his postgame press conference. “Ultimately, it was just really good execution, commanding the baseball where he wanted. He went to the top of the zone with the fastball, and then ran the change up below.

“He had everything going in sync — rhythm, deceptive, great arm speed. Just happy for him. To be able to be that efficient through five innings is really impressive."

The bullpen was excellent, too. Garrett Cleavinger and Brian Baker both threw perfect innings after Seymour, and Mason Englert pitched the final two innings, allowing just one hit.

The Rays gave Seymour and his pitching mates plenty of offensive support, too, with Junior Caminero playing the hero role once again. He hit two more home runs, and now has 39 on the season. That passed Logan Morrison (38 in 2017) and ties Brandon Lowe (2021) and Carlos Pena (2009) at 39 for the second-most in a season for a Rays player. Pena, who hit 46 homers in 2007, has the team record.

Caminero now has an MLB-best 12 homers in August, and can seemingly do no wrong.

“I’m running out of things to say about him,” Cash said of Caminero, who was traded to the Rays from Cleveland in 2021 as a minor-leaguer. “It’s fun to watch. We've got the best seat in the house.”

Yandy Diaz, also acquired from Cleveland in a trade in 2019, also homered Monday night, and rookies Carson Williams and Bob Seymour each had two hits.

The Rays are now 64-67, and remain 6.5 games behind Seattle for the final wild-card spot. The Mariners won again Monday night, as well. The Rays and Guardians meet again Tuesday night, with Shane Baz (8-10, 5.22 ERA) starting for Tampa Bay against Parker Messick, a Plant City native who made his MLB debut last week. The game starts at 6:40 p.m.