Ben Rice and Aaron Judge.
“That’s a pretty good combo there,” Aaron Boone said.
That combo has been in the middle of everything early on for the Yankees’ offense, and that was again the case during Monday night’s win over the Rangers.
After Jack Leiter breezed his way through the first two innings, Rice was able to break through, crushing a first pitch fastball the other way to deep left-center.
The blast left the bat at a whopping 106.9 mph and traveled 404 feet to the deepest part of the park.
“Man, that ball was pummeled,” Boone said.
“I didn’t think it was going to go out so I was running hard, but it was cool to see one go out that way,” Rice added.
The 27-year-old lefty continued his spectacular start to the season, pushing him into a tie with Judge for second in the league and the team-lead for homer, though it was short-lived.
Judge regained the advantage over his slugging teammate just five pitches later, as he laced a 3-2 curveball 113 mph over the right-field fence for his 11th homer and the Yanks first back-to-back jacks of the season.
It was Judge’s eighth blasts over his last 15 games.
“I couldn’t let him catch me,” the captain joked. “I had to make sure I got one after that.”
“Just trying to keep him honest, keep him motivated,” a smiling Rice added.
Friendly competition aside, the two entered some prestigious company, joining Yogi Berra and Mikey Mantle as the only pair of teammates in franchise history with 10+ homers in the first 29 games of the season.
They are also just the third duo in MLB history to reach that mark during the month of April.
We already know what Judge is capable of, but having the scorching-hot Rice hitting around him only makes this Yankees lineup even scarier moving forward.
“Hitting right behind him now, it makes my job easier,” Judge admitted.
“I enjoy hitting in the order with him,” Rice added. “Whether I’m in front of him or behind him, I think there’s different scenarios where either way works, but anytime I could be near him in the lineup is a good one.”
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