Sweet redemption for Rice, who hits go-ahead blast after error in 9th

TORONTO -- Mired in one of their worst offensive stretches of the season and a three-game losing streak, the Yankees eased their woes with one swing of the bat on Sunday at Rogers Centre.

Despite entering the bottom of the ninth holding a 2-1 lead over the Blue Jays, some sloppy defense cost New York a shot at a nine-inning victory as first baseman Ben Rice misplayed a Josh Smith ground ball to lead off the inning. Smith would later advance to second on a walk and third on a wild pitch before coming in to score the tying run on Ernie Clement’s sacrifice fly to force extra innings.

It felt like it let the air out of a New York team that has needed to scrap and claw for every run in recent days and was battling to avoid a sweep at the hands of its American League East rivals.

But Rice immediately had his moment of redemption in the top of the 10th, blasting a two-run shot -- just his second homer of August -- to give the Yankees a 4-3 win and make up for his error.

“It definitely felt good,” Rice said postgame. “I mean, you just gotta have as short of a memory as you possibly can, and just go out there and try to execute a plan against whoever's on the mound.”

Rice’s big swing came on an afternoon when he was bumped up to the leadoff spot, part of a batting order shakeup from manager Aaron Boone in hopes of finding some more runs in this three-game series north of the border.

The first baseman looked close to a breakthrough in Saturday’s loss, lofting two deep flyouts as he battled a slump that has seen his first-half .971 OPS turn into a .573 mark since the All-Star break.

So to say Sunday’s game-winning jack was much needed might be an understatement.

“Obviously, no one’s feeling worse at that point than Benny,” Boone said of Rice’s ninth inning. “And to come up there and essentially win the game for us in the 10th was massive. Credit to him, that’s this game. That’s being a big leaguer.”

Along with Rice’s bump to the leadoff spot, Luis García Jr. got moved up to the two-hole, Trent Grisham slid to cleanup and José Caballero slotted in at second base for Jazz Chisholm Jr., who entered later as a pinch-runner.

Although the lineup maneuvers didn’t result in the type of sustained offensive explosion New York has been waiting for, the chaos inserted with Caballero and Rice’s late homer finally provided enough offense to back another strong showing from its starting pitcher.

Ryan Weathers turned in a fifth straight excellent outing, retiring the first 10 batters he faced on his way to 7 1/3 innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts while allowing six hits and one walk.

“I thought it was one of his better strike-throwing games,” Boone said of Weathers. “He never walks a lot of guys, but he can get into some deeper counts and scatter sometimes. And today he was in the zone a lot, not a lot of waste pitches, and again excellent.”

While it mostly took until Rice’s swing in the 10th for the top of the order to deliver, Caballero’s presence at the bottom muddied things up through the first nine innings.

“Certainly hoping for [a spark],” Boone said of Caballero’s insertion into the lineup. “A lot of really good things by him and a big difference in the game today.”

After the Yankees battled Dylan Cease for 6 1/3 innings, George Lombard Jr. finally chased the Blue Jays ace with a one-out double in the seventh with the score tied 1-1. Caballero later scored the rookie with an RBI single before getting in a rundown between first and second, which -- if not for a video review -- might have brought a second run in on the play.

Caballero was just as involved in the game’s opening run after working a leadoff walk -- aided by two successful ABS challenges -- in the third inning. He then advanced to second on a ground ball in front of the plate from Rice, stole third and came in to score on a sacrifice fly to left field by García.

“This season has tested our character and our resilience,” Boone said overall about the win. “It’s games like this we continue to find ourselves in. We just gotta keep fighting and know that we’re an incomplete team, but we have a chance to be who we want to be.”