ANAHEIM, Calif. — Ben Rice fouled two totally different balls off the identical spot on the highest of his left foot Monday evening.
The Yankees DH was in clear ache each instances, and but it nonetheless won’t have been as irritating because the dangerous luck he had been hitting into of late.
An evening later, he was lastly rewarded with a 423-foot blast, his eleventh dwelling run of the season — and fourth off a lefty pitcher — as he continued to clobber the ball and present he deserves at-bats even with Giancarlo Stanton’s impending return.
Rice’s numbers have taken a dip in latest weeks, however his underlying metrics haven’t.
He went from batting .288 with a 1.005 OPS on April 24 to batting .244 with an .856 OPS coming into Wednesday’s 1-0 win within the sequence finale in opposition to the Angels the place he got here in to pinch-hit within the seventh and lined out to second on a ball that got here off his bat at 94 mph.
However Rice got here into Wednesday with a median exit velocity of 94.5 mph, which was the seventh-highest mark within the majors behind established stars Oneil Cruz, Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Decide, Pete Alonso, Matt Olson and Rafael Devers.
His hard-hit fee (balls that come off the bat at 95 mph or tougher) of 58.3 p.c was good for fifth within the majors. And his anticipated batting common — taking into consideration the standard of contact he has made — was .288.
That’s the reason supervisor Aaron Boone just lately stated he nonetheless appreciated Rice’s at-bats, even when he was not at all times getting the outcomes.
“Dig again by, he’s hitting the ball arduous nonetheless,” Boone stated. “He simply hasn’t had rather a lot to indicate for in and round that. However I nonetheless really feel like he’s hitting a pair balls arduous each time he’s on the market. I like the place he’s at.”
The epitome of Rice’s poor luck of late got here Sunday in Denver, in back-to-back at-bats from him and Decide.
Rice rocketed a 108.3 mph line drive to proper subject that hung up simply lengthy sufficient to go for an out. Decide got here up subsequent and cracked a 69.7 mph bloop to proper subject that fell for a single.
Rice did ultimately get one to fall earlier than the sport was over, although, lacing a 112.8 mph double.
“Ben Rice has clearly emerged as an awesome hitter,” stated Carlos Rodón, who made word of the balls he had been hitting arduous proper at fielders of late.
After getting off to a red-hot begin to his MLB profession final summer time, Rice cooled off in a giant method to the purpose that he was optioned to Triple-A by September.
The Yankees thought there was some dangerous luck concerned then too, although he was not hitting the ball fairly as arduous as he’s now.
Rice has continued to demolish fastballs this season to the tune of a .325 common with a .688 slugging share in opposition to them and a median exit velocity of 97.9 mph.
Pitchers have had higher success throwing him breaking balls, in opposition to which he was batting .132 with a .302 slugging share and 89 mph common exit velocity.
However he could also be getting extra fastballs to hit by batting in entrance of Decide.
Total, Rice has made the many of the alternative created by Stanton beginning the 12 months on the injured listing, which is able to make the approaching weeks fascinating.
Stanton is at present in Tampa to take at the least every week’s value of dwell at-bats earlier than probably getting in rehab video games subsequent week and probably being activated the next week.
If the Yankees keep wholesome till then — which isn’t any certain factor — Boone will probably be tasked with discovering a method to get all of his hitters deserving of at-bats sufficient of them.
The present scenario has labored properly with the rotation of Rice, Paul Goldschmidt, Trent Grisham, Cody Bellinger and Jasson Domínguez every getting the occasional time off relying on how Boone makes use of the DH spot.
Whereas Stanton is unlikely to play each day, particularly early on, he doesn’t provide any positional flexibility aside from taking part in DH, which clogs up that spot to an extent.
Rice has taken occasional pregame grounders at third base, however thus far the Yankees insist that’s only for enjoyable and never an indication of issues to come back.
The left-handed hitter has additionally gotten into 4 video games this season at catcher, however solely late in blowout video games to this point.
