Rays' Junior Caminero rides torrid stretch into finale vs. Royals

Coming off a shutout loss to Tampa Bay, perhaps the last person the Kansas City Royals want to see on the mound on Thursday is Ian Seymour.

Especially after the left-hander dominated them last week.

Hoping teammate Junior Caminero continues his power surge, Seymour will try to help the visiting Rays extend their winning streak to a season-high eight games on Thursday night against the struggling Royals.

After Casey Legumina threw 1 1/3 hitless innings against Kansas City last Thursday, Seymour (4-1, 4.32 ERA) came on and yielded no hits and only one walk while striking out seven batters over 6 2/3 stellar frames. However, teammate Craig Kimbrel allowed Kansas City's only hit, a two-run homer in the ninth inning to Carter Jensen, during the Rays' 13-2 win.

Seymour has a 2.84 ERA with 19 strikeouts in his last four outings, in which he's started twice and has been used in bulk two times.

"When you control the count and throw in the strike zone -- good things happen," said Seymour, slated for the starter role on Thursday. "It comes down to the reps that longer outings allow you to have. From a delivery standpoint, you just feel a little more crisp."

While Seymour hopes for another strong performance, Caminero will look to continue his impressive offensive run.

With a two-run homer in the first inning of the Rays' 4-0 win at Kansas City on Wednesday, Caminero became the youngest player since at least 1900 to go deep in six consecutive games. At 22 years, 361 days old, he topped a mark set by then-23-year-old Ken Griffey Jr. with his ninth home run in the last eight games -- during which he's batting .452 with 20 RBIs.

Caminero is hitting .429 with six of his 24 home runs and 14 RBIs in five games vs. Kansas City this season.

"Running out of words," Rays manager Kevin Cash said of Caminero. "Really exciting that he's doing it."

Tampa Bay has outscored opponents 47-13 during its second seven-game winning streak of 2026. The Rays own a 32-9 run advantage while beating the Royals four times during that stretch.

After outscoring the Royals 14-4 in the first two games of this set, Tampa Bay secured its first winning road series since May 11-13. Its only road series sweep of 2026 came against the Chicago White Sox from April 14-16.

Kansas City, meanwhile, has been outscored 60-16 while losing six of the last seven games overall. However, star Bobby Witt Jr. is batting .469 during an eight-game home hitting streak.

Royals manager Matt Quatraro said he expects Stephen Kolek (4-2, 4.15 ERA) to start the series finale. The right-hander has been away from the club due to the premature birth of his daughter.

Kolek has not pitched since he allowed nine runs and nine hits -- including three homers -- in just 1 2/3 innings of a 12-10 home loss to St. Louis on June 21.

"Those days are going to happen," Kolek told The Kansas City Star. "It's definitely tough to pitch when you don't have command over stuff like that. "So we're going to clean it up."

This will be Kolek's first appearance against the Rays.

--Field Level Media