Tampa Bay

Rays

It was a surprisingly quick hook for Seymour today, though that might have had something to do with the start of the game being pushed back by rain. Seymour gave up two homers, but he wasn’t exactly stressed in throwing 61 pitches over three innings and he struck out four. He’s due to face the Blue Jays on Thursday.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t add to the nice day in the ninth, when he grounded out against Aroldis Chapman with the tying run on third and the go-ahead run at second to end the game. The homer off Ryan Watson was hit sixth in 189 plate appearances. He is batting .258/.294/.438 while starting against all lefties and a bit less than half of the time versus righties.

After suffering an injury scare when he was hit by a pitch on the left hand during the All-Star Game earlier this week, Caminero was back in the Rays lineup in his return from the break, and wasted little time showing everyone there was nothing to be worried about. The righty deposited a pitch from Eduardo Rivera 407 feet onto the Green Monster to tie the game at 3-3, giving him his 29th homer of the season. Caminero tallied a hit in both games of Friday’s double header and appears to be good to go after Tuesday’s scare.

The Red Sox got after Englert in the first inning, tallying three straight extra-base hits, which included back-to-back homers by Wilyer Abreu and Willson Contreras to put the Red Sox up 3-2. Abreu would get the best of Englert again in the third inning, when he blasted his second homer of the game, a solo shot, into the stands to put the Sox up 4-3 after the Rays had tied it in the top of the frame. He would allow two more runs before being pulled to start the sixth inning, but it goes without saying that this was a rough outing for Englert, who was making just his third start of the season. He’s now started back-to-back games for the Rays, but today’s start was likely due to the Rays playing the second game of a doubleheader. If he is to make another start when this spot in the rotation comes around, it would come on Wednesday against the Blue Jays.

The Rays as a whole were baffled by Jake Bennett, who held them to just Caminero’s single in six innings. But Caminero looked pretty good despite getting hit in the hand at the All-Star game and appears to be no worse for the wear.

Nothing under the hood looked too bad for Jax, who gave up his one home run just inside the Pesky Pole to Masataka Yoshida. The Red Sox chained a HBP-single-walk-single start to the sixth inning together and reliever Chris Roycroft allowed two inherited runners to score to balloon Jax’s ERA. Jax had a 36 percent whiff rate and allowed just seven hard-hit balls -- four against his four-seamer -- in 85 pitches. He’ll look to bounce back next time out against the Blue Jays.

Lux needed an injection recently, so it’s likely that his shoulder is still bothering him. Lux hasn’t yet played in the majors in 2026 and had been hitting just .223/.387/.298 in 119 plate appearances during his rehab assignment to Triple-A Durham. It’s the second time this season Lux has been pulled off a rehab assignment.

There was some concern that Caminero might need to take a couple of games off after getting hit in the left hand by a pitch during the All-Star Game on Tuesday. However, the 23-year-old had his X-rays come back clean, and he’s right back in the lineup with the second half underway.

Englert is being called up as the 27th man on Friday. He could be used in a bulk role, but Englert threw 5 2/3 innings in his last outing so he will be used for length, regardless of whether or not he makes a traditional start.

The Rays are expected to go with Mason Englert, either as a traditional starter or behind an opener for the second game of Friday’s doubleheader. Ian Seymour will then get the ball on Saturday and Shane McClanahan will start in Friday’s series finale.