HOUSTON — There is no ideal matchup for Junior Caminero, the Tampa Bay Rays’ 22-year-old wunderkind working on a second consecutive 40-home run season. He awoke on Friday with nine homers across the team’s past nine games.When Caminero connected on his tenth, Steven Okert craned his neck, rolled his eyes and did not bother watching the baseball land. The slider Okert spun in a 1-1 count did not break. It is a cardinal sin against anyone, much less baseball’s hottest hitter. Caminero did what the sport has come to expect.
Junior Caminero rockets @RaysBaseball right back in front! pic.twitter.com/WlBCoiqXmA
— MLB (@MLB) July 4, 2026It is who he did it against that inspired intrigue. Okert is one of the Houston Astros’ three most trusted relievers, so pitching him in the seventh inning of a tie game is a sensible decision. Doing so without a platoon advantage, after pulling the low-pitch-count starter that had one, raises questions.In response to one of them, Spencer Arrighetti said, “That’s kind of above my head.” He tamed Tampa’s patient, contact-centric lineup across six innings of one-run ball. Arrighetti did it with just 73 pitches, never needing more than 18 to finish any of the six frames he worked.Arrighetti did not get the chance to attempt a seventh. Summoning Okert instead is the aggression synonymous with Joe Espada’s three-year tenure as Astros manager. He pinch-hits freely, reconfigures his defense to suit the roster’s strengths and is unafraid to ask relievers for multiple innings. Espada seeks every late-game advantage and leans hard on his most dependable players to provide it.Okert is one of them. Before facing Caminero during Houston’s 3-1 loss to the Rays on Friday, Okert had allowed one earned run in his previous 19 2/3 innings. He has been worth 1.1 wins above replacement this season, according to Baseball-Reference.The only two Astros pitchers worth more are starter Peter Lambert and setup man Bryan King, who would’ve pitched Friday’s eighth inning had Okert held the lead. After he didn’t, attention shifted to why Okert was asked to at all.Espada evaded many specifics, though he did mention “not exposing Spencer through that middle of the order,” alluding to the third-time-through penalty. Arrighetti is allowing a career .714 OPS in 240 plate appearances against hitters facing him for the third time in a game. Espada did not answer a specific question of whether he worried about Arrighetti seeing those hitters a third time.“I thought that was the right move at the time, especially the way Okert has been so good for us there in the seventh,” Espada said.Arrighetti had also been awesome through six. He allowed three Rays to reach base. Two of them didn’t pass first. Tampa’s lineup chased against Arrighetti at a 34 percent clip — almost five points above its season average — and averaged just an 87.7 mph exit velocity on the 14 balls it put in play.The entire effort represented a rebound for Arrighetti, whose 9.00 ERA in five June starts threw his rotation spot into question. Doing so after winning American League Pitcher of the Month in May underscores both the upside Arrighetti possesses and the growing pains he must still endure.“This game is ebb and flow,” Arrighetti said. “I had a great month, I had a terrible month and now (I) started this month off better.”Why this July will be an exciting month for MLBKen Rosenthal and Johnny SweetPerhaps Espada wanted to ensure that. The month Arrighetti just endured tested his resolve like few before it. After his final start in June, Arrighetti barely spoke above a whisper while acknowledging he did not have answers for his spiral.There is value in having a pitcher feel accomplished when he exits the mound, especially one as early in his career as Arrighetti. Espada had to weigh that in his decision-making on Friday. The five starts Arrighetti made in June also had to be in the back of his mind.Given Espada’s decision, maybe they were creeping toward the front. Asked if he was surprised to be taken out after 73 pitches, Arrighetti replied: “I’m never surprised, no.”“I feel like with the month I had last month and how good this (Rays) lineup has been, I’m sure there’s a lot of factors that go into that,” Arrighetti continued. “I’m just glad that I was able to give us a chance for six innings and turn it over with the game in a good spot.”Caminero hit second in the seventh inning. The two hitters that sandwiched him are left-handed, making Okert the most sensible choice to face the entire pocket, but not the most dangerous player within it.Caminero awoke on Friday with an identical .846 OPS against both left-handed and right-handed pitchers in his career. In his first 84 games of this season, though, Caminero’s OPS was 13 points higher against lefties than righties.Allowing Arrighetti to start the inning may have produced a more advantageous matchup with Caminero, but would’ve forced him to face at least one left-handed hitter. Arrighetti is allowing a .749 OPS to them this season. Deploying Okert doubled as an attempt to avoid any scenario where Caminero batted with a runner on base.He didn’t. It still backfired.“With the pocket of the lineup that was up, a lefty made sense,” Arrighetti said. “Obviously any time I’m asked to, I’m going to keep taking the ball and going to keep trying to give us a chance. But that’s above me.”One decision did not lose the game, even if it did produce the go-ahead home run. Houston’s lineup managed three hits. Jose Altuve struck out two more times, lowering his batting average to .229 and OPS to .674. Houston’s three outfielders totaled one hit in 13 at-bats, continuing the group’s gruesome offensive season.After the one hit an outfielder did produce, Cam Smith got doubled off trying to take second base on a deep flyout to strong-armed center fielder Cedric Mullins. Houston produced just two more baserunners across the next five innings — which is a bigger issue than any bullpen decision, but still magnifies any that are made.
