ANAHEIM, Calif. — Ben Rice fouled two different balls off the same spot on the top of his left foot Monday night.
The Yankees DH was in clear pain both times, and yet it still might not have been as frustrating as the bad luck he had been hitting into of late.
On the following night, he was duly rewarded with a 423-foot home run, his 11th of the season — and fourth off a left-handed pitcher — as he continued to demonstrate his prowess at the plate, affirming his case for playing time even with Giancarlo Stanton’s expected return.
Rice’s numbers have taken a dip in recent weeks, but his underlying metrics have not.
He saw his statistics shift from batting .288 with a 1.005 OPS on April 24 to batting .244 with an .856 OPS by the time of Wednesday’s 1-0 victory in the series finale against the Angels. During the game, he appeared as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning and lined out to second base with a ball that left his bat at 94 mph.
However, by Wednesday, Rice boasted an average exit velocity of 94.5 mph, ranking as the seventh-highest in the majors, trailing well-known players like Oneil Cruz, Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Pete Alonso, Matt Olson, and Rafael Devers.
His hard-hit rate (balls that come off the bat at 95 mph or harder) of 58.3 percent was good for fifth in the majors. And his expected batting average — taking into account the quality of contact he has made — was .288.
That is why manager Aaron Boone recently said he still liked Rice’s at-bats, even if he was not always getting the results.
“Dig back through, he’s hitting the ball hard still,” Boone said. “He just hasn’t had a lot to show for in and around that. But I still feel like he’s hitting a couple balls hard every time he’s out there. I like where he’s at.”
The epitome of Rice’s poor luck of late came Sunday in Denver, in back-to-back at-bats from him and Judge.
Rice rocketed a 108.3 mph line drive to right field that hung up just long enough to go for an out. Judge came up next and cracked a 69.7 mph bloop to right field that fell for a single.
Rice did eventually get one to fall before the game was over, though, lacing a 112.8 mph double.
“Ben Rice has obviously emerged as a great hitter,” said Carlos Rodón, who made note of the balls he had been hitting hard right at fielders of late.
After getting off to a red-hot start to his MLB career last summer, Rice cooled off in a big way to the point that he was optioned to Triple-A by September.
The Yankees thought there was some bad luck involved then too, though he was not hitting the ball quite as hard as he is now.
Rice has continued to demolish fastballs this season to the tune of a .325 average with a .688 slugging percentage against them and an average exit velocity of 97.9 mph.
Pitchers have had better success throwing him breaking balls, against which he was batting .132 with a .302 slugging percentage and 89 mph average exit velocity.
But he may be getting more fastballs to hit by batting in front of Judge.
Overall, Rice has made the most of the opportunity created by Stanton starting the year on the injured list, which will make the coming weeks interesting.
Stanton is currently in Tampa to take at least a week’s worth of live at-bats before potentially getting in rehab games next week and possibly being activated the following week.
If the Yankees stay healthy until then — which is no sure thing — Boone will be tasked with finding a way to get all of his hitters deserving of at-bats enough of them.
The current situation has worked well with the rotation of Rice, Paul Goldschmidt, Trent Grisham, Cody Bellinger and Jasson Domínguez each getting the occasional day off depending on how Boone uses the DH spot.
While Stanton is unlikely to play every day, especially early on, he does not offer any positional flexibility other than playing DH, which clogs up that spot to an extent.
Rice has taken occasional pregame grounders at third base, but to this point the Yankees insist that is just for fun and not a sign of things to come.
The left-handed hitter has also gotten into four games this season at catcher, but only late in blowout games so far.
