The case can be made that Ben Rice just had the greatest hitting game in the history of postseason baseball for the New York Yankees.
He achieved something so remarkable that Babe Ruth never did it. Lou Gehrig never did it. Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Reggie Jackson, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Aaron Judge — none of them ever did it, either.
Rice is the first player in the storied history of the winningest franchise in MLB history to have a night like the one he did on Tuesday.
It was made all the sweeter by the fact that Rice did this while the Yankees bludgeoned their hated rival, the Boston Red Sox, by a 9-0 throttling.
For those keeping at home, that’s the same score as a forfeit. The Red Sox might as well have not even shown up.
Except it’s a good thing they did, as far as the Yankees are concerned, because it allowed Rice to have an unprecedented evening in the Bronx.
Ben Rice Unprecedented History
Rice achieved history by totaling six RBI and four hits all in the same playoff game.
A Yankees player had never done that before, ever.
Ben Rice: 1st player in Yankees history with 6+ RBI and 4+ Hits in a postseason game.
— Katie Sharp (@SharpStats17) September 30, 2026
Rice didn’t arrive at these numbers cheaply, either.
He had a double and two home runs. One of the homers was a grand slam with two outs in the eighth inning that really put the game to bed.
Rice scored a pair of runs, as well. The only blemish on his stat sheet was that his one out was a strikeout.
Otherwise, Rice was as good as they come. He channeled the uplifting ghosts of all the Yankees greats and used that to put on a performance for the ages.
The only reason it has the potential to be forgotten over time is the fact that it happened in the Wild Card Round and not later in the postseason. But ballplayers can only compete in the game in front of them, and Rice sure made the most of this night.
From Dartmouth to Dreams
Rice wasn’t supposed to be this good of a player, a guy who could finish an MLB regular season with 41 home runs and then singlehandedly claim a playoff opener with his swings.
He went to Dartmouth, an Ivy League school known more for producing brilliant contributors to society and less for creating smooth left-handed swings.
Rice, though, left school with the latter. The Yankees drafted him, so he wasn’t totally unheralded, but he was also only a 12th-round pick.
By his pedigree, Rice was supposed to be, at best, a grinder who scraped his way into the major leagues.
Instead, Rice spent Tuesday night as the brightest light for the shiniest franchise in professional sports.
For decades, the Yankees built their roster by buying players so good that they didn’t need breakthrough performers like Rice.
Now, Rice has proven that the pinstripes look quite good on a player who no one expects to be this good.
In fact, in some ways they look better. Rice wasn’t a player bought to lead the charge. He simply built himself into such a player, and it culminated on Tuesday night in a game for the ages.
Yankees’ Ben Rice Achieves Unprecedented Playoff Baseball History for NYY