Junior Caminero’s grand slam lifts Rays past Cardinals

Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero rocketed his team-leading 37th homer, a sixth-inning grand slam, to help the Rays pull away from the visiting St. Louis Cardinals in a 7-2 rain-delayed victory on Sunday afternoon.
The All-Star third baseman jumped on reliever Matt Svanson’s first pitch and hammered the towering shot 381 feet to right field for his second grand slam this season. The home side scored four times on one hit in the frame for a 5-0 lead.
Christopher Morel was 3-for-4 with a solo homer, while Chandler Simpson had two hits, including a two-RBI triple, plus a run, walk and his 38th stolen base.
In his team-leading 27th start, Ryan Pepiot (9-10) was limited to just 63 pitches in shutting down St. Louis. He fired five scoreless innings of one-hit ball, fanned three and walked one.
Reliever Brian Van Belle made his major league debut and shut down St. Louis’ threat of a rally in the seventh in his 2 1/3 innings.
The Rays were 2-3 on their homestand that began with consecutive losses against the New York Yankees.
The Cardinals’ Matthew Liberatore (6-11) was saddled with four runs on three hits. The former Rays first-round selection whiffed five and walked three.
Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman managed RBI singles, but Willson Contreras’ three-game homer streak ended as St. Louis split its six-game Florida road trip.
The two teams, each with plenty of work ahead to get into wild-card position, outwaited a four hour, 25-minute rain delay before the rubber game of the series began.
Against Liberatore in the fourth inning, Morel, who had been out of the lineup in the series’ first two games, crushed a 94 mph center-cut fastball 399 feet to left center for his 10th home run and a 1-0 lead.
Following Caminero’s deep blast for the five-run edge, Simpson added two insurance runs with his third triple in the sixth to make it 7-0 lead before Walker put the Cardinals on the board in the seventh with an RBI single and Gorman added another in the ninth.