The New York Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays 9-2 on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium. The offense erupted for nine runs on a night where the scoreboard barely mattered in the standings. What mattered happened twice off the bat of Ben Rice.
Rice crushed his 40th home run in the first inning. He added his 41st in the fourth. Two swings that put his name in a club that only three Yankees have ever entered. 40 home runs before the end of a player’s third big league season. The other two names on the list are Aaron Judge and Joe DiMaggio.
After the game, Rice talked about what the number means, how he got there, and what comes next.
Rice on the Milestone
Rice did not walk into the season with a target on the wall. The number found him, not the other way around.
“It’s a cool milestone,” Rice said. “It’s not something you go into the season really aiming for. You don’t really know how it’s going to go. But as I was approaching that number, it’s definitely something I was hoping to achieve. So it was cool to do it tonight.”
The humility was genuine. Rice talked about process, not production. Day by day. Good at-bats. Hit the ball hard. See where you end up.
“I never really set out certain numbers or anything like that,” Rice said. “Just really try to focus day by day, trying to do the best I can to stick with my approach. And then as the season gets closer to ending, see where you’re at.”
Where he ended up was 41 home runs.
What Changed for the Yankees Slugger
Rice was asked what he does better now than he did two years ago. His answer pointed to something more important than mechanics.
“There’s 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’ve always been a good learner in that way. So just seeing more guys and learning my way through it really helped me improve.”
Judge and Boone Weigh In
Judge watched Rice’s night from the dugout and had a simple assessment.
“Just a complete hitter,” Judge said. “Each year he’s gotten better, each month he’s gotten better. Even through bad slumps, he’s making the reads and making the changes he needs to get back to his normal self. It’s been fun to watch.”
Manager Aaron Boone predicted 39 home runs for Rice before the season. Rice made sure his manager heard about it after both swings on Wednesday.
“He let me know both times,” Boone said. “When he hit 40 and then 41 with the exclamation point on it. That made for some fun.”
Boone’s assessment of Rice’s season carried more weight than the joke.
“He’s become an outstanding hitter in this league,” Boone said. “Close to a 900 OPS, 41 homers. Had a stretch in there where it was a struggle, and he was grinding. But kind of battled through that and the last few weeks has been on a really good run.”
Final Word for the Yankees
Ben Rice hit 40 home runs in a season where the Yankees lost their two biggest power bats for months at a time. He did not just fill in. He stepped up.
The milestone puts him in rare company inside the most decorated franchise in baseball.
Forty-one home runs. A complete hitter. And a player who is just getting started.
Yankees’ Ben Rice Makes Honest Admission After Historic Milestone