With Aaron Judge shelved for what looks like a 2-month stretch, every Yankees at-bat has felt like an audition. Ben Rice keeps acing his. The kid stepped in against Garrett Crochet on Friday night and absolutely uncorked one — 377 feet, 96.9 off the bat, his 18th of the season — and even the Carrabis wing of the internet had to tip its cap.
A grudging concession that Rice is the real deal, paired with the actual swing.
There's a reason this swing hit different. With Judge sidelined, the Yankees need someone in that lineup to play stopper, and Rice is making the case that he can be that guy nightly. Hubbs basically begged him to drag the offense across the finish line for the next two months.
Rice's 18th HR with the full broadcast graphic — 377 ft, 96.9 mph off Crochet.
But this is Sox-Yankees, even in a year where Carrabis correctly pointed out the series feels weirdly muted — Sox fans bummed about a bad team, Yankees fans bummed about Judge's ribs. The Sox didn't roll over. Andruw Monasterio stepped in against Ryan Weathers and obliterated a 97 mph heater into the seats to swing the momentum back to Boston.
Monasterio turning around a Weathers fastball and sending it into orbit.
Then WC40 — Contreras, jersey number checking out — followed it up with a no-doubter to the second deck off Weathers to push Boston ahead 3-2. Suddenly the Yankees bullpen was leaking, the Sox were stacking bombs, and the post-Judge Yankees were staring down exactly the kind of night Hubbs was dreading when the diagnosis came down.
Contreras unloads to the upper deck at Yankee Stadium.
The silver lining for New York is the opportunity this whole stretch creates. Spencer Jones got the call up and Hubbs liked what he saw in the AB, which is the kind of low-bar, please-give-us-something hope that defines an injury-replacement era. The AL is wide open, Rice is mashing, and if Jones can carve out anything close to a role, those 2 months might not bury the season. The bullpen and the back of the rotation, though? Different story.