Rays star Junior Caminero leaves win over Guardians early after taking foul ball to the jaw
Junior Caminero is expected to be OK after a ball drilled him in the face on Tuesday in Cleveland.
Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Junior Caminero left their 1-0 win over the Cleveland Guardians early on Tuesday after he took a ball directly to his jaw. Caminero fouled a pitch from Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee off the plate in the opening inning of Tuesday’s contest at Progressive Field. The ball hit the plate and bounced right back up to drill Caminero on the right side of his face.
He immediately reached up, clearly in a ton of pain, before dropping to the ground behind the plate. Junior Caminero was in some serious pain after fouling a ball off his face, but he's staying in the game pic. twitter.
com/fc95hFyIlf — Talkin' Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 28, 2026 Remarkably, Caminero remained in the game to finish his at-bat, though he grounded out to Bibee. He was then replaced by Ben Williamson. Caminero is now considered day-to-day with a bruised jaw, though manager Kevin Cash doesn’t expect him to be sidelined for long, if at all.
“He's OK,” Cash said, via MLB. com . “He's in really good spirits and I would expect him to be in the lineup tomorrow.