Ben Rice spent Thursday afternoon in a back-and-forth with Junior Caminero, and by the end of it the Yankees first baseman had turned a temporary lead change into something much bigger.
Caminero got there first, launching his 27th homer in the bottom of the first. Rice answered in the third, then moved ahead for good in the sixth as the Yankees rolled past the Rays 12-4 in St.
Petersburg, Fla. The two sluggers will be in the same Home Run Derby field Monday in Philadelphia, but Rice left Tropicana Field with a place in Yankees history that has nothing to do with the Derby.
Over four games in Tampa Bay, Rice went 7-for-16 with four home runs and nine RBIs. No Yankees hitter had ever hit four homers in a single series against the Rays.
He also became the fourth Yankees player to reach at least five homers at Tropicana Field in one season, joining Aaron Judge in 2022, Alex Rodriguez in 2015 and Alfonso Soriano in 2003. Each of those three stopped at five.
Thursday was the fourth multi-homer game of Rice’s career and his first of 2026. He finished 2-for-4 with a walk, three runs scored and a season-high five RBIs, more than anyone else in the lineup by a wide margin.
His first homer came in the third inning off Drew Rasmussen, a two-run shot that just cleared the right-field wall and required replay to confirm it. The second was a three-run blast off Casey Legumina in the sixth, and that one left no doubt.
The bigger milestone arrived with that second swing. Homer No. 28 pushed Rice onto a short list of Yankees who have reached that mark before the All-Star break. He is now the eighth player in franchise history to do it, joining Babe Ruth, Aaron Judge, Mickey Mantle, Lou Gehrig, Roger Maris, Alex Rodriguez and Tino Martinez.
The left-handed company is even tighter. Only Maris, who had 33 before the 1961 break on his way to 61, and Martinez, who had 28 in 1997, have matched or topped Rice from that side of the plate.
Rice is 27 and already past the 26 homers he hit in 138 games last season. He reached that total in July this year, with half a season still to go.
That kind of surge looked a lot less likely a month ago. In June, Rice hit .196 with seven extra-base hits in 102 at-bats, and the Yankees’ offense went quiet around him.
July has flipped the script. He has five homers in his last nine games and 11 RBIs in 29 at-bats this month.
When asked what changed, Rice didn’t point to a swing tweak or some hidden adjustment.
“Just sticking with it overall,” Rice said.
He added, “You’re bound to go through the ups and downs,” and described the answer as staying committed to the same plan.
“Be convicted in it and hopefully good things will happen,” Rice said.
The numbers now put him near the top of the American League in several categories. Through 377 plate appearances, Rice is hitting .275/.366/.590 with 28 homers, 15 doubles, 65 RBIs and 63 runs. He is tied for first in extra-base hits with 45, second in homers, second in runs, second in slugging, second in OPS at .956, second in wRC+ at 162 and third in RBIs.
Only Yordan Alvarez, with 29 homers, is ahead of him on the AL home run leaderboard.
Rice has done it while the Yankees have been without Judge for 34 games. Judge has not played since May 31 because of a fractured right rib and will be reimaged during the break. New York is 15-19 in those games, and the club entered Thursday having dropped 15 of its previous 20, the worst record in baseball since June 18.
The Yankees needed Thursday’s 14-hit outburst, their first game in double figures since June 17. Ryan Yarbrough got the win, while Rasmussen took the loss after allowing six runs in 2 1/3 innings.
Rice said he was thinking less about himself than about what the win meant for the group.
“It’s big for the morale heading into this last series,” Rice said.
New York has three games at Washington before the break. The Yankees trail Tampa Bay by four games in the AL East, and Rice heads to Philadelphia with 28 homers, a Derby spot and a new place in the franchise record book.
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