Yankees resurrect offense behind Ben Rice’s two homers, split series with Rays

Even in the most difficult of times, this team has had Ben Rice to count on, and here, needing a win, it saw its first baseman completely take over a game with two homers to lead a blowout 11-4 win over the Rays. Neither one of Rice’s homers represented the go-ahead hit or even came in moments where the game was close, but seeing how difficult each inning was for the Yankees’ bullpen, the impact of that performance cannot be understated.

In order to put up such lofty numbers, the Yankees offense had to handle one of its biggest foes in Drew Rasmussen. And in one half-inning, the Yankees managed to match all the runs they had scored against Rasmussen in the previous nine matchups versus the right-hander. When Junior Caminero hit a solo shot in the first to give the Rays the lead, given the path of recent games, a certain level of skepticism was warranted about the team’s chances. However, the game is played on the field, and the Yankees overcame their negative momentum to score six runs in a third-inning rally. For context, the last time the Yankees scored at least six runs in a single half-inning was nearly a month ago, beating the White Sox on the road.

Although it wasn’t with a particularly hard-hit ball, the decision to start Max Schuemann in the outfield paid off for the Yankees, with his leadoff double starting the rally in the third. Speaking of unlikely hits, Ryan McMahon drove him in with a double of his own to put the Yankees on the scoreboard. It was a much-welcome (if unexpected) conclusion to 12-pitch battle in the lefty/lefty matchup against Rasmussen. Then, Trent Grisham made do on his solid numbers against Rasmussen with a single, eventually driven in by Ben Rice, who hit the first of his two homers in this game.

Unable to retire the following three hitters, Rasmussen didn’t even complete three full innings in his worst career start versus the Yankees. Reliever Cam Booser came in to try and strike out Jazz Chisholm Jr. on a lefty-lefty matchup with runners at the corners and only one out, but the Yankees’ second baseman played smart baseball and drove in his team’s sixth run on a sac fly, his third of the year.

Under normal circumstances, particularly with the quality of starting pitching the Yankees have had this year, a 6-1 lead would feel rather safe, even with a lot of baseball to be played. This bullpen game had a slightly different path, and right after the Yankees opened up this lead, the Rays started to chip away, even if it came with a bitter taste for the home team. Tampa loaded the bases ahead of Caminero against Jake Bird, and against all odds, the Yankees reliever induced a rally-killing double play. The scoring could’ve stopped at one, but Ryan Yarbrough, who came in for the lefty matchup, allowed a double to make it 6-3. Still, keeping it to just two runs when you loaded the bases before recording an out in the inning, it’s not half bad.

The Yankees got one back in the fourth on an Austin Wells solo shot of all ways, but the theme of close calls would carry on for the Yankees bullpen throughout most of this matchup. Chandler Simpson led off that fifth inning with a triple, and Yarbrough, with a lending hand from Camilo Doval and the Yankees defense, would manage to strand him. Doval came in with two outs, and Nick Fortes hit a grounder to second that wasn’t easy to handle, but Jazz made the play and kept the game at 7-3. So often we’ve seen the game get away from Doval, but here he kept things in check, even if momentarily.

It was the same story all over again in the fifth as Doval was toying with fire by handing out a free pass and a hit-by-pitch in back-to-back at-bats with one out. The next in line of firemen out of the bullpen was Brent Headrick, punching out two straight hitters to strand a couple.

Finally, Rice had enough of these tense moments and gave the Yankees a bigger cushion with a three-run shot in the sixth to make it 10-3, but that didn’t stop the following innings from being entertaining.

Simpson hit his second triple of the game in the sixth, and this time he came around to score; later, Jasson Domínguez misplayed a fly ball in right, opening up room for a Rays big inning, but once again Headrick prevailed with multiple base runners, stranding both.

With McMahon and Bellinger driving in runs in the seventh and eighth—and more importantly, Angel Chivilli being the only reliever to toss clean innings out of the Yankees bullpen—the final frames of this game came stress-free for Aaron Boone’s club. Leaving the Trop with a series split, the Yankees will face a strong Nationals offense to end the first half ahead of the All-Star break. First pitch from DC will be at 6:45pm ET with southpaws Ryan Weathers and Carson Palmquist squaring off.

Box Score