2 Rice HR’s; McMahon Grand Slam Pace Yanks. NY 9 Tampa 2

September 24, 2026 paperbacklou 2026 0
Ryan McMahon with a Grand Slam on a 3-2 pitch with 2 outs in the 3rd to break the game open.

Ben Rice hit a HR to lead off the game, Ryan McMahon hit a Grand Slam in the 3rd, and Rice hit a 2nd HR to make it an 8-1 game in the 4th as the Yankees blew out Tampa 9-2 on a beautiful, 65-degree Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium.

George Lombard Jr. also hit a HR in the 3rd.

Gerrit Cole pitched 5.2 strong innings for NY, and improved his record to 10-9 3.61. Tampa, having clinched the AL East the night before, threw 6’4 reliever Mason Englert to the mound as the starter, and he got ripped for8 runs on 9 hits in 3.2 innings.

Rice’s 2 HR’s give him 41, in a 4-way tie for 1st in the American League with Yordan Alvarez, Junior Caminero, and Pete Alonso.

“I was pretty close,” joked manager Aaron Boone afterwards, who told Ben Rice at the start of the season he was looking forward to him hitting 39 HR’s this year. “But he went sure and passed — and he let me know it after that 40th and then let me know it again on 41. Obviously another big night for Ben.”

“I said hey there’s 40 for you skip,” said Rice afterwards. “Thank you so much for inspiring me to get to 40.”

“It’s all in good fun,” added Rice. “Back in spring when he told me that I knew it secretly meant he was hoping I’d hit 40.”

“As you start to get close to a number like that, you really want to reach it,” said Rice. “I was really hoping to get it in these final few games, and it was nice to get it in the 1st inning.”

NY improves to 91-67, 5 games back of Tampa, which falls to 96-62.

1. Rice Starts It Off With a Bang

With Shane McClanahan on the 15-day IL after experiencing left forearm tightness in his start on September 3rd, Tampa threw Mason Englert to the mound, a 26-year-old, 6’4 righty reliever who came in with an 0-3 4.54 record.

And Ben Rice pounced to lead off the bottom of the 1st with a 379-foot HR to right for a 1-0 Yankee lead.

2. McMahon RBI Single in 2nd Makes It 2-0 NY

Englert retired the next 3 Yanks to end the 1st, but Spencer Jones led off the 2nd with a booming double to right. Englert got a strike out and ground out — but with 2 outs, Ryan McMahon came through with a clutch RBI single up the middle for a 2-0 Yankee lead.

3. Lombard HR & McMahon Grand Slam Put Game Away in 3rd

And the Yanks pounced some more on Englert in the 3rd — George Lombard Jr. led off with a 384-foot HR to right center to make it 3-0 NY.

Luis Garcia Jr. followed with a single, and after Englert struck out Heliot Ramos and Spencer Jones — Jazz Chisholm Jr. laced a 2-out single to right and Jose Caballero walked to load the bases.

Up stepped Ryan McMahon again, and again with 2 outs he got a Clutch hit — ripping a 3-2 fastball DEEP and HIGH to right and just fair into the short porch for a Grand Slam and 7-2 NY lead.

4. Rice Adds 41st HR in 4th

Ben Rice led off the 4th with his 2nd HR of the game and 41st of the year — tying for the AL homerun lead.

Englert got 2 more outs, but then a single by Heliot Ramos finally sent him to the showers, replaced by 6’2 righty Casey Legumina who got the last out of the 4th.

5. Cole Terrific

Meanwhile Gerrit Cole was Terrific, pitching a shutout into the 4th with by then a 7-0 lead.

Cole was sharp with his usual assortment, highlighted by his 98-MPH four-seam fastball (above) and filthy 84-MPH knuckle curve (below).

The only 2 runs he allowed came on a 2-out walk and RBI double to Jonny DeLuca in the 4th to make it 7-1, and a 1-out solo HR to Cedric Mullins in the 5th to make it 8-2.

Cole got the first 2 outs of the 6th before walking Liam Hicks and leaving at 102 pitches. Brent Headrick came in to get the final out of the inning.

Cole’s line: 5.2 IP, 3 hits, 2 runs, 8 K’s, 3 walks. It was his 2nd strong start in a row after 2 poor starts before that — so he rights his record to 10-9 3.61 (after having been 8-9 3.67).

6. Ramos Adds Sac Fly in 8th to Make It 9-2

The Tampa pen shut the Yanks down after Englert left — Legumina pitched a shutout 5th, 6’4 righty Brody Hopkins pitched a shutout 6th, and former Met lefty Steven Matz pitched a shutout 7th. The now 35-year old Matz is 5-5 5.42 out of the pen this year for Tampa.

36-year-old, 6’0 righty Cole Sulser pitched the 8th, and NY added a run: Ali Sanchez led off with a single, next batter Ben Rice singled to opposite-field left (for his 3rd hit of the game), and with 1 out Luis Garcia Jr. walked to load the bases.

Heliot Ramos then hit a sac fly to make it 9-2.

7. Yank Pen Provides 3.1 Shutout Innings

John Schreiber pitched the 7th and got into some trouble not his fault — an error by Lombard to start the inning, a fly out and an infield single by Jorge Mateo put 2 on with 1 out. But Tim Hill came in and got consecutive groundouts to end the inning — so that was good to see.

Paul Blackburn pitched a shutout 8th, allowing but a 2-out single.

And David Bednar got some work in, pitching the 9th, and getting 3 straight outs — groundout, groundout, and strikeout for the old ballgame.

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401817049

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