Ben Rice swats 38th homer in win against Mets

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.

Rice hit his 36th homer of the season with a solo shot off Walker Buehler; one of only two runs the Yankees were able to score in the contest. The 27-year-old has gone through it over the last couple of months, but it’s hard to complain about that level of production from Rice or really any other player.

Rice ended up hitting .184/.304/.337 in August. He’s hit .216/.313/.432 over the last three months. Most everyone is still treating him as an ascendent star, but his bat speed and exit velocity numbers are all worse than last year and his strikeout rate has taken a big jump in the wrong direction. He’s definitely a good player, but he seems like a worst bet going forward now than he did a year ago.

Rice’s RBI single in the third inning tied the game 1-1. In the eighth inning, his two-run single extended the Yankees lead to 9-2. Rice is hitting .254 with an .877 OPS and 86 RBI on the season.

Rice has scuffled at the plate this month, but this marked his second homer in his past three games. It was his 34th this season, giving him a chance to finish with 40+ as a catcher-eligible player in fantasy leagues. He’ll lose that eligibility in 2027 but should be drafted as one of the earliest first basemen off the board. There is perhaps even further upside in a full season hitting alongside Aaron Judge.

Rice entered Sunday hitting .091 in 13 games this month. The most troubling aspect of this slump is a strikeout rate north of 30 percent. He only struck out once this afternoon, and the homer goes a long way toward easing concerns about his rest-of-season outlook. Rice got off to such a strong start that his second-half struggles have been waved away somewhat. It hasn’t helped that the entire Yankee lineup has scuffled for most of the summer. Cody Bellinger is at least beginning a rehab assignment this week, though the potential return of Aaron Judge is what will truly make this lineup scary again.

Rice came into this one cold at the plate, going 3-for-34 over his last ten games and zero homers since July 26. He broke the drought with a home run off Danny Young in the eighth inning to give the Yankees an insurance run. The 27-year-old slugger is up to 32 homers and 75 RBI while hitting .260/.353/.550 across 479 plate appearances.

With two outs in the bottom of the ninth and the Yankees trailing 2-1, Rice stepped up to the plate with runners on first and second. The slumping slugger made the most of a big spot when he ripped a long single off Braves closer Raisel Iglesias to bring home Austin Wells and tie the game at 2-2. Rice’s hit came up just short of hitting a walk-off homer and wound up forcing extra innings in a game they trailed in all night. It was a much-needed big hit for Rice, who is now 1-for-18 at the plate in the month of August.