More of the same for the Rays with their 13th win in 16 games

John Romano, Tampa Bay Times on Jun 6, 2025

Published in Baseball

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TAMPA, Fla. — Here’s the short version of the Rays' 4-3 win against the Marlins on Friday:

Junior Caminero? Still hitting.

Rays pitchers? Still dealing.

It hasn’t been difficult to trace Tampa Bay’s recent hot streak. The Rays have gone 13-3 since May 20 with their pitchers compiling a 1.96 ERA and Caminero hitting .368 with seven homers and 20 RBIs.

We saw much of the same Friday in a rare afternoon game due to a Metallica concert across the street at Raymond James Stadium in the evening.

Caminero was in the middle of Tampa Bay’s first two rallies with a pair of doubles, and starter Zack Littell went six solid innings before departing with a 3-1 lead.

Littell, coming off the first complete game of his career, threw only 72 pitches but was lifted after working a couple of hours in the midday sun.

The Rays got an insurance run in the seventh that turned out to be crucial. Jonathan Aranda and Jake Mangum hit back-to-back, one-out singles. One out later, recently acquired catcher Matt Thaiss got his first RBI in Tampa Bay with a single to center.

An inning later, the Marlins made it interesting in the eighth by greeting reliever Edwin Uceta with three hits in their first four at-bats, including a two-run homer by Otto Lopez. Uceta was replaced by Garrett Cleavinger, who gave up a two-out single to Eric Wagaman to move the potential tying run into scoring position. Cleavinger eventually worked out of the jam by getting Heriberto Hernandez to ground out.

With Pete Fairbanks pitching the ninth for his 12th save, the Rays have now held opponents to four runs or less in 17 consecutive games.