{"id":608033,"date":"2026-03-05T16:43:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T16:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/608033\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T16:43:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T16:43:26","slug":"yankees-ben-rice-makes-412-foot-impression-with-first-spring-homer-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/608033\/","title":{"rendered":"Yankees\u2019 Ben Rice makes 412-foot impression with first spring homer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NY<\/a>Thu, March 5, 2026 at 3:43 AM UTC\"An<\/p>\n

An image collage containing 1 images, Image 1 shows New York Yankees first baseman Ben Rice (22) is congratulated by third base coach Luis Rojas (67)<\/p>\n

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

\"Yankees<\/p>\n

Yankees 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

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben 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":"Thu, March 5, 2026 at 3:43 AM UTC An image collage containing 1 images, Image 1 shows New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[5,731,27690,6920,1119,74497,60010,1093,4,1690,62,2548,2547,5808,89,142],"class_list":["post-608033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-yankees","tag-baseball","tag-ben-rice","tag-braden-shewmake","tag-fifth-inning","tag-jake-bird","tag-jetblue-park-at-fenway-south","tag-jim-rassol-imagn","tag-justin-slaten","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkyankees","tag-paul-blackburn","tag-red-sox","tag-yankees"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116177576321315244","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608033","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=608033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}