houstonchronicle
In a stunning display of power, Ben Rice of the New York Yankees surpassed manager Aaron Boone's preseason forecast by belting his 40th and 41st home runs of the season during Wednesday night's 9-2 triumph over the Tampa Bay Rays. Boone had boldly predicted during spring training that Rice would finish with 39 homers, but the young slugger has now exceeded that mark, tying for the American League home run lead.
Rice's first homer came in the opening inning, as he crushed Mason Englert's first pitch into the right-field second deck at Yankee Stadium. Upon returning to the dugout, Rice smiled and pointed at Boone, a playful acknowledgment of the prediction. He added another solo shot in the fourth inning, again grinning at his manager. "I think I said, 'Hey, there's 40 for you,'" Rice recalled. "I was joking with him after the 41st one, saying, 'Hey thanks for inspiring me this year.' But it's all in good fun. Back in spring when he told me that, I knew that secretly meant he was hoping I'd hit 40."
Rice is now tied for the AL home run lead with Baltimore's Pete Alonso, Tampa Bay's Junior Caminero, and Houston's Yordan Alvarez. He is batting .263 and leads the Yankees with 97 RBIs and an .899 OPS, earning his first All-Star selection and becoming the centerpiece of an offense that has been without Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton for most of the season.
Boone intentionally chose an unusual number rather than a round figure. "I was confident he was going to have a really big year," Boone said. "Probably wanted to make sure it was just south of a number, maybe to maybe let him know that."
With three hits and a walk on the night, Rice became the 13th Yankees player to record a 40-home run season, and just the third to reach that milestone within his first three seasons, joining Joe DiMaggio and Judge. His plate appearances often inspire the stadium organist to play Elton John's "Bennie and the Jets," and Rice has ignited an often-struggling offense with 16 go-ahead homers and three game-tying blasts this year.
"One thing I always tell guys the difference between minor leaguers and big leaguers is the consistency," Judge said. "He's one of the best. I can look up at the clock and I know exactly where he's going to be in the cage. You know what he's doing in the training room, the weight room. It's just every single day, man, this guy's a machine."
A 12th-round pick in the 2021 amateur draft out of Dartmouth, where he played only 30 games over three years due to the coronavirus pandemic, Rice was primarily a catcher but occasionally played first base in the minors. He made his big league debut in June 2024 at age 25 after Anthony Rizzo broke a forearm. That year, Rice hit .171 with seven homers and 23 RBIs in 50 games, then batted .255 with 26 homers and 65 RBIs in 138 games last season.
With Stanton sidelined for most of the season, the left-handed-hitting Rice has appeared in 93 games at designated hitter and 52 at first base this year. "It's tough to pull him off his back leg," Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole said. "He's really able to stay balanced and deliver high-efficacy strikes on various pitches in all parts of the zone."
Rice was hitting .306 through May, then batted .196 in June. An 18-for-58 (.119) slide after the All-Star break dropped his season average to .248 on Aug. 22, but he's rebounded to bat .333 (34 for 102) since. "Went through a lull, which is inevitable, even in a great season," Boone said. "Had a stretch in there where it was a struggle and he was grinding but kind of battled through that and feel like the last few weeks has been on a really good run."
Rice's potential was evident on July 6, 2024, less than a month into his big league career, when he became the first Yankees rookie with three home runs in a game and tied Lou Gehrig's Yankees rookie record of seven RBIs. Consistency took time. "A lot of it I always feel like is just experience-based," Rice said. "You just see more pitching at the big league level, get exposed to guys who throw all different kinds of pitches from different angles and slots and all these things. I feel like I've always been a good learner in that way."
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Originally reported by houstonchronicle.