{"id":607143,"date":"2026-03-05T05:27:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T05:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/607143\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T05:27:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T05:27:16","slug":"yankees-ben-rice-makes-412-foot-impression-with-first-spring-homer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/607143\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees’ Ben Rice makes 412-foot impression with first spring homer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Observations from Yankees spring training on Wednesday <\/p>\n

Big blast<\/p>\n

Ben Rice crushed his first home run of the spring<\/a>, a 412-footer off Red Sox reliever Justin Slaten that came off the bat at 108.8 mph and cut through the wind blowing in from right field.<\/p>\n

\"YankeesYankees first baseman Ben Rice (22) rounds second base after hitting a solo home run in the fifth inning against the Boston Red Sox at JetBlue Park at Fenway South. Jim Rassol-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

\"NewBen Rice is congratulated by third base coach Luis Rojas after hitting a solo home run in the fifth inning of the Yankees\u2019 4-0 spring training win over the Red Sox at JetBlue Park on March 4, 2026. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n

Bird botch<\/p>\n

At first base, Rice made a diving stop to his right to knock down a hard ground ball from Isiah Kiner-Falefa, got to his feet to collect the ball and then flipped to Jake Bird for what should have been an out. <\/p>\n

The first base umpire claimed Bird did not actually step on the bag, but it was a strong play by Rice nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Caught my eye<\/p>\n

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, shortstop Braden Shewmake made a diving catch in shallow left field, then got onto one knee to fire home and throw out the runner trying to tag up from third for the inning-ending double play.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s schedule<\/p>\n

Paul Blackburn will make his second start of the spring as the Yankees host the Twins on Thursday afternoon at Steinbrenner Field. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Observations from Yankees spring training on Wednesday Big blast Ben Rice crushed his first home run of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2376],"tags":[5,731,4,1690,62,2548,2547,185,151,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-607143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-ben-rice","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-yankees","13":"tag-newyork","14":"tag-newyorkyankees","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-spring-training","17":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116174917772486216","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}