Rice Rakes 4 Hits. NY 6 Tampa 3

April 18, 2025 paperbacklou 2025 0
Ben Rice with a 2-out, 2-RBI single to make it a 6-3 game.

Ben Rice went 4 for 5 and drove in 2 big runs to help the Yanks to a 6-3 win over the Rays at George M Steinbrenner field in Tampa on a Thursday night.

Tampa is playing their home games at the Yankee minor league park this year while their stadium is rebuilt.

Will Warren started for NY but had trouble finding the strike zone — some due to ump calls that he felt didn’t go his way — and was pulled in the 2nd inning. The Yanks pieced the game together with their bullpen — Ryan Yarbrough, Tim Hill, Ian Hamilton, and Devin Williams delivering the victory.

NY came back from a 3-1 deficit with 2 runs in the 5th to tie it, and 3 in the 6th to go ahead, including a Clutch, 2-out, 2-RBI single by Rice.

Tampa out-hit NY 12 to 11, but in baseball you need to score more runs to win and the Yanks did on lots of singles and doubles and groundouts and a solo homer by Oswaldo Cabrera.

“What a great team effort,” said manager Aaron Boone afterwards. “Position players’ at bats, grinding away. The bullpen coming up huge to different degrees. Yarbrough getting us to the middle innings there, and then Timmy and Hammy and Devin finishing it off. Just a lot of real quality at bats. A feel good one right there.”

NY improves to 12-7 — a 102-win pace. Tampa falls to 8-11.

1. Judge Drives in Run in 1st Off Bradley

The top of the Yankee lineup put their hitting shoes on against 6’2, 24-year-old righty Taj Bradley, who is in his 3rd season as a starter for Tampa, going 8-11 4.11 last year.

Paul Goldschmidt led off the game with an infield single, Ben Rice grounded a single up the middle, and Aaron Judge ripped a single to center and the Yanks were up 1-0.

Cody Bellinger grounded out to move the runners to 2nd and 3rd with 1 out — and the Tampa pitching coach came out to talk to Bradley. Bradley had started out the game throwing lots of cutters and off-speed pitches high in the zone.

After the pitching coach left, Bradley reached back for his 97-MPH fastball and started throwing that high in the zone. It was as if the pitching coach had to remind him that he had that, noted Suzyn Waldman on the broadcast, or they had changed their strategy.

Bradley struck out Anthony Volpe on two 97-MPH fastballs and a splitter, and got Jazz Chisholm Jr. to pop out to end the inning. And after that, Bradley rolled thru the 2nd thru 4th innings.

2. Warren Runs Into Trouble in 2nd

Meanwhile, Will Warren allowed consecutive singles to the first 2 batters in the bottom of the 1st — Kameron Misner and Brandon Lowe — but was helped out by Should-have-won-several-Gold-Gloves-by-now right fielder Aaron Judge, who rifled a throw to 3rd nailing Misner.

Warren then got consecutive line outs to end the inning with NY up 1-0, and struck out the leadoff batter in the bottom of the 2nd and all seemed well.

Not.

Richie Palacios doubled, Jake Mangum reached on an infield hit, old friend Ben Rortvedt walked to load the bases, and Taylor Walls hit a sac fly to tie the game.

In an 8-pitch at bat, Warren walked Kameron Misner on a 3-2 pitch that looked like it got the plate for a strike — loading the bases, and Warren was gone at 53 pitches.

“Well I wasn’t going to allow him to go to 40 pitches in the inning,” said manager Boone afterwards. “That as much as anything. And I felt with kind of the game in the balance, if I did let him face Lowe, which is a tough matchup with him about to throw 40 pitches for the inning, with Yarbrough warming up — I felt that was my shot with Yarbrough against Lowe. But that was more about a pitch count thing with a young pitcher that I wasn’t going to allow to go 40+ pitches in an inning.”

3. Yarbrough Gets Out & Into & Out of Trouble

Ryan Yarbrough came in with bases loaded and 2 out, and struck out Brandon Lowe to get out of the jam in the 2nd.

But in the 3rd, he allowed a 1-out single to Jonathan Aranda and a 2-run homer to 3rd baseman Junior Caminero. Tampa 3 NY 1.

After the Homer, Yarbrough allowed a single to Palacios, a walk to Mangum, and a single to Rortvedt to load the bases again — this time with 1 out — but got Taylor Walls to hit into a Huge double play — 2nd to 1st — to get out of the threat. Phew!

4. Oswaldo HR Makes It 3-2 Tampa

Meanwhile Taj Bradley had settled down and was stifling the Yankee lineup — getting double plays in the 3rd and 4th to eliminate baserunners — until Oswaldo Cabrera ripped a 382-foot homer to right center with 1 out in the 5th for a 3-2 game.

5. Yank Top of Lineup Ties It in 5th

And then the top of the Yankee lineup pounced. Goldschmidt followed Oswaldo’s HR with a base hit to left, Ben Rice raked a double down the rightfield line, and Bradley pitched around Aaron Judge — walking him to load the bases with 1 out.

Cody Bellinger grounded out to 2nd, scoring the run and tying the game 3-3.

6. Hill Good

Yarbrough pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 4th, but ran into trouble again in the 5th — by this time the game tied 3-3. He got the 1st out of the inning but then allowed consecutive singles to Caminero and Palacios and was relieved by Tim Hill.

Hill allowed Mangum to reach on an infield hit, loading the bases with 1 out again, in a 3-3 tie. But Hill then struck out Danny Jansen and got Taylor Walls to ground out to 2nd to end the threat. Phew!

7. The Martian Puts NY Up; Rice Makes It 6-3

The Yanks finally sent Bradley to the showers in the 6th. Jazz Chisholm Jr. led off with a walk, and J.C. Escarra singled to center, sending Chisholm to 3rd. Jasson Dominguez hit a grounder to 2nd, scoring Chisholm to put NY up 4-3.

Oswaldo Cabrera walked, sending Bradley to the showers.

Reliever Manuel Rodriguez got Goldschmidt to ground out, which advanced the runners to 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs. That’s when Ben Rice raked a single to left making it 6-3 NY. Breathing room.

8. Hamilton Great

Tim Hill, given a 6-3 lead (he would get the win), pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 6th and got the first out of the 7th before being relieved by Ian Hamilton.

Hamilton got the last 2 outs of the 7th, and pitched a shutout 8th, allowing just a 1-out single.

9. Devin the Save

And Devin Williams came in and pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the 9th — ground out, pop out, lineout to Cabrera at 3rd for the old ballgame.

Etcetera

Jazz Chisholm Jr. was ejected for arguing a 3rd strike call in the 7th inning. He would then tweet his displeasure as well as the game was going on — earning him a 1-game suspension afterwards, as that is against MLB rules.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401695186

 

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