NEW YORK (AP) — Ben Rice one-upped Aaron Boone.
asserted
Rice → up → Boone
And then he two-upped the New York Yankees manager.
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he → up → manager
Boone predicted during spring training that Rice would finish with 39 home runs this season.
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Rice → predict → runs
Rice hit Nos. 40 and 41 in Wednesday night’s 9-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, tying for the American League home run lead.
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Rice → hit → lead
He smiled and pointed at Boone when he returned to the dugout after driving Mason Englert’s first pitch of the game into Yankee Stadium’s right field second deck.
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he → smile → deck
Rice grinned at Boone some more after another solo homer in the fourth.
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Rice → grin → fourth
“I think I said, `Hey, there’s 40 for you,’” Rice recalled.
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Rice → think → you
“I was joking with him after the 41st one, saying, `Hey thanks for inspiring me this year.’
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I → joke → me
But it’s all in good fun.
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it → ’ → fun
Back in spring when he told me that, I knew that secretly meant he was hoping I’d hit 40.”
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I → tell → 40
Rice is tied for the AL home run lead with Baltimore’s Pete Alonso, the Rays’ Junior Caminero and Houston’s Yordan Alvarez.
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Rice → tie → Alonso
He is hitting .263 and leads the Yankees with 97 RBIs and an .899 OPS, becoming a first-time All-Star and the biggest cog in an offense missing Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton for most of the season.
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He → hit → season
Boone deliberately picked an odd total rather than a round figure.
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Boone → pick → total
“I was confident he was going to have a really big year,” he said.
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he → go → year
“Probably wanted to make sure it was just south of a number, maybe to maybe let him know that.”
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him → want → that
Rice, who had three hits and a walk, became the 13th Yankees player with a 40-home run season but just the third to reach the milestone during his first three seasons after Joe DiMaggio and Judge.
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who → have → DiMaggio
Rice’s plate appearances often prompt a rendition of Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets″ from the stadium’s organist, and Rice has sparked an often struggling offense with 16 go-ahead homers this year and three that have tied games.
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that → prompt → games
“One thing I always tell guys the difference between minor leaguers and big leaguers is the consistency,” Judge said.
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Judge → tell → leaguers
“He’s one of the best.
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He → ’ → best
I can look up at the clock and I know exactly where he’s going to be in the cage.
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he → look → cage
You know what he’s doing in the training room, the weight room.
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he → know → room
It’s just every single day, man, this guy’s a machine.
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guy → ’ → ?
A 12th-round pick in the 2021 amateur draft from Dartmouth, where he played just 30 games over three years due to the coronavirus pandemic, Rice was mostly a catcher but occasionally a first baseman in the minors.
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Rice → play → minors
He made his big league debut in June 2024 at age 25 after Anthony Rizzo broke a forearm.
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Rizzo → make → forearm
Rice hit .171 with seven homers and 23 RBIs in 50 games that year, then batted .255 with 26 homers and 65 RBIs in 138 games last year.
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Rice → hit → games
With Stanton sidelined for most of the season, the left-handed-hitting Rice has 93 games at DH this year and 52 at first.
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Rice → sideline → first
“It’s tough to pull him off his back leg,” Yankees pitcher Gerrit Cole said.
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Cole → ’ → leg
“He’s really able to stay balanced and deliver high-efficacy strikes on various pitches in all parts of the zone.”
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He → ’ → zone
Rice was hitting .306 through May, then batted .196 in June.
uncertain
Rice → hit → June
An 18-for-58 (.119) slide after the All-Star break dropped his season average to .248 on Aug. 22 but he’s rebounded to bat .333 (34 for 102) since.
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he → drop → 102
“Went through a lull, which is inevitable, even in a great season,” Boone said.
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Boone → go → season
“Had a stretch in there where it was a struggle and he was grinding but kind of battled through that and feel like the last few weeks has been on a really good run.”
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weeks → have → run
Rice’s potential was evident on July 6, 2024, less than a month into his big league career, when he became the first Yankees rookie with three home runs in a game and tied Lou Gehrig’s Yankees rookie record of seven RBIs.
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he → become → RBIs
Consistency took time.
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Consistency → take → time
“A lot of it I always feel like is just experience-based,” Rice said.
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Rice → feel → it
“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.
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who → see → angles
I feel like I’ve always been a good learner in that way.”
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I → feel → way
The Aporia
