ST. PETERSBURG — Tampa Bay Rays superstar third baseman Junior Caminero and outfielder Jonny DeLuca avoided serious injury Monday night after a violent collision while chasing a foul ball in the ninth inning of the Rays’ 7-3 loss to the Cleveland Guardians in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series at Tropicana Field.

With a crowd of 35,361 watching, Brayan Rocchio lifted a fly ball toward the Guardians’ bullpen down the left-field line. DeLuca came in from left field as Caminero ran back from third base. Neither caught the ball. Both players absorbed most of the impact on their left shoulders. DeLuca hit the turf hard, rolled into the bullpen bench and quickly got to his feet. Caminero stayed upright briefly before sitting against the short wall between the field and 162 Landing, appearing to be in significant pain.

Caminero remained in the game after being evaluated, returning to third base as “Gonna Fly Now” — the theme from “Rocky” — played over Tropicana Field’s speakers.

“I feel good. Feel good overall,” Caminero said through interpreter Kevin Vera. “Just my head hurts a little bit, but overall good.”

Caminero said he was struck primarily in the chest during the collision and described the headache as “just kind of the normal aftereffect … of feeling the hit, feeling the blow.” Manager Kevin Cash said he was initially unaware Caminero had gone down at all.

“I think he got the wind knocked out of him a little bit. I actually didn’t even notice that he went down,” Cash said. “I was looking at DeLuca. He popped up pretty quick, and [I] didn’t realize that Cami had fallen down a couple feet behind him. But I think he just got the wind knocked out of him, and he seems to be totally fine now.”

DeLuca said the collision banged up his left shoulder and hand but does not expect either to affect him going forward. He attributed the near-miss to competitive instincts and crowd noise.

“Just two guys going hard at it, and obviously it’s pretty noisy. It’s hard to hear each other,” DeLuca said. “That’s about it. I think Cami’s good. I’m pretty good.”

Game 2 of the American League Championship Series is scheduled at Tropicana Field.