New York Yankees Rookie Ben Rice Hits 3 Homers, Makes History Against Boston Red Sox

Ben Rice has been with the New York Yankees for less than three weeks, and he has already made massive waves against their most heated rival.

The rookie first baseman may have gone 1-for-4 against the Boston Red Sox on Friday night, but the Yankees lost that game in extra innings. On Saturday, Rice helped change the tone right off the bat by leading off the bottom of the first inning with a solo homer.

That marked Rice's second career big league home run, both of which have come in the last three days. According to MLB.com's Sarah Langs, Rice is the 11th player in Yankees history to hit a leadoff homer within their first two career homers, and only the third to do so since 1959.

Langs had plenty more notes on Rice throughout the afternoon, as did Underdog Fantasy's Justin Havens, because his explosive performance didn't end there.

Rice crushed a three-run home run in the bottom of the fifth that made it 10-4 New York. When he got another at-bat in the seventh, Rice added another three-run bomb to make it 14-4.

The Yankees went on to win by that same score, essentially wiping out their historically excruciating loss from Friday.

Rice ended Saturday 3-for-5 with three home runs and seven RBI. He is now batting .294 with a .971 OPS on the season, boosting his batting average by 33 points and his OPS by 216 points in the span of one game.

Langs noted that Rice became the first rookie in Yankees history to post a three-homer game. He also joined Mike Yastrzemski and Andrew McCutchen as one of three rookies in MLB history to hit three home runs in a single game out of the leadoff spot.

Saturday marked Rice's 17th career MLB game. Per Langs and the Elias Sports Bureau, that is the fifth-fewest games before a three-home run performance in league history.

According to Havens, Rice is the fourth Yankees player ever to hit three home runs in a single game against the Red Sox. Lou Gehrig did so in 1927, Mark Teixeira did it in 2010 and Aaron Hicks did it in 2018, but only Gehrig was younger than the 25-year-old Rice.

With Anthony Rizzo set to miss at least another month of action, the Yankees must be happy to have an explosive bat holding down the fort at first base in his absence. If he keeps hitting like he did Saturday, he will surely figure into New York's lineup even after Rizzo returns.

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