Ben Rice swats 38th homer in win against Mets

Rice was one of the few bright spots as New York committed a whopping four errors to fall into an 0-2 hole in the best-of-five series. The 27-year-old slugging first baseman took Rays starter Freddy Peralta deep in the early stages of the contest before tattooing an eighth-inning blast off lefty reliever Ian Seymour. It was his second multi-homer performance in four games this postseason. The Yankees will attempt to stave off elimination when the series resumes with Game 3 in New York on Wednesday.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone is sticking with the same lineup that was shutout by Rays ace Drew Rasmussen, who carried a no-hit bid into the eighth inning, and closer Bryan Baker in a Game 1 defeat. It’ll be eight left-handed batters getting a look at Freddy Peralta as he makes his Tampa Bay postseason debut in this one. Here’s the full lineup: Ben Rice (DH), Cody Bellinger (LF), Luis García Jr. (1B), Spencer Jones (RF), George Lombard Jr. (SS), Chisholm (2B), Trent Grisham (CF), Austin Wells (C) and Ryan McMahon (3B).

Rice took Red Sox lefty reliever Erik Miller deep for a 423-foot blast to straightaway center field with two outs in the fifth inning to give New York a commanding 2-0 advantage with ace Cam Schlittler completely shutting down Boston’s offense. He supplied another insurance run with a bases-loaded RBI single to right field off lefty reliever Alec Gamboa in the seventh inning. Rice had a chance to do even more damage when he came to the plate with the bases loaded again in the ensuing frame, and he didn’t waste it, crushing a grand slam to center field off righty Brayan Bello to complete the multi-homer performance. The Cohasset, Massachusetts native recorded four batted balls with exit velocities over 100 mph as the Yankees cruised to a comfortable win without injured franchise cornerstone Aaron Judge (calf).

Stanton has not played in an MLB game since April 24th. He originally injured his right calf but then suffered a left calf injury during rehab. The 36-year-old has been taking live batting practice and could still give the Yankees a real boost, with the Red Sox set to start left-hander Payton Tolle in Game 1. However, if Stanton is at DH in Game 1, that means one of Luis Garcia and Ben Rice would play first base, and the other would likely sit. Given recent lineups, Garcia will almost assuredly be the one on the bench.

Rice led off the home half of the first inning with a walk, but was cut down attempting to steal second base. He doubled in the seventh inning and ultimately came around to score on an RBI single by Luis Garcia Jr. With his two-hit night, the 27-year-old slugger is now hitting .264/.363/.534 with a whopping 41 homers and 97 RBI in 667 plate appearances on the season.

Rice took Mason Englert deep twice for his second two-homer game this year and fifth of his career. His is the 36th 40-homer season in Yankees history. He’s now two RBI away from reaching the century mark there, which is pretty good for someone who has mostly hit second and first.

Rice has 39 homers, which is far and away a record for Yankees who qualify at catcher for fantasy purposes. Gary Sánchez, at 34, holds the actual single-season record for Yankees catchers. One more will give Rice the 36th 40-homer season in Yankees history.

Rice takes a seat with Paul Goldschmidt getting a chance to face Mets rookie southpaw Zac Thornton. The 27-year-old slugger went 3-for-4 with his 37th home run of the season during Friday’s series-opening win. He’ll continue sitting against the occasional lefty starter, but he’s been a mostly everyday option for New York regardless of opponent.

Rice absolutely had Mets’ starter Nolan McLean’s number in this one. First, he hit a lead-off single and came around to score the game’s first run soon thereafter. Then, another single – following a great challenge and overturned third strike – kept the second inning alive for Cody Bellinger to launch a three-run homer. Lastly, in his final at-bat against McLean, Rice poked a home run just over the left field fence on an inside-out swing that looked like it had no business getting a ball over the wall. With an .877 OPS and 37 homers, he’s absolutely cemented himself as one of the game’s best hitters.

Rice hit just .184 with four home runs and 13 RBI in August. So far in September, he’s 9-for-17 (.529) with one home run and two RBI in four games. Rice is hitting .261 with an .883 OPS and 88 RBI this year.