A New York Yankees player hitting three home runs in a game against the Boston Red Sox is a sure way to get attention. Considering Ben Rice is a rookie, he may have established a footprint in the lore of this great baseball rivalry.
Rice definitely inked a note for himself in Yankees history, becoming the first rookie in the celebrated history of the franchise to hit three homers in a game.
In addition to going deep three times, Rice collected seven RBI while batting 3-for-5 in the Yankees’ 14–4 blowout win over the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on Saturday.
His first-inning homer off Boston’s Josh Winckowski gave New York a 1–0 lead. But there was far more damage to come. Rice added a three-run shot in the fifth off Chase Anderson to boost the Yankees’ lead to 10–4. He tagged Anderson again in the seventh for another three-run blast.
Rice came into the game with one home run, a .261 batting average and .755 OPS, so this performance probably couldn’t have been predicted.
In 60 games with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, he hit 15 homers with a .275 average and .925 OPS. Rice was called up in mid-June when Anthony Rizzo went on the injured list with a fractured arm that was expected to sideline him for at least eight weeks.
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