NEW YORK – Ben Rice was not in the lineup and unable to swing with full force on Monday, according to Yankees manager Aaron Boone, one day after a left hand contusion forced the Major Leagues’ OPS leader to exit the club’s 11-3 victory over the Orioles.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a long thing, but it was enough to feel like he couldn’t get his real good swing off,” Boone said. “We’ll pay attention to that, and hopefully it will continue to improve as the day goes on. We’ll see if he’s available at some point in the game, or hopefully back in there [Tuesday] or the next day.”
Rice took a low pickoff attempt from Max Fried in the third inning Sunday and was considered day to day after X-rays on his hand came back negative.
“It’s a little sore,” Rice said. “I thought the throw [from Fried] was going to be a little lower than it was. I went down and thought it would be in the dirt. Then it kind of stayed up in the end. I caught it poorly. It kind of hit in the palm.”
Earlier in the game, Rice gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead with a first-inning home run, his 12th of the season.
Rice and Aaron Judge, who hit his 13th homer Sunday, became the fifth pair of teammates in history with 12-plus homers each through the first 34 games of the season.
They joined the Yankees’ Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra in 1956, the Braves’ Eddie Mathews and Hank Aaron in 1959, the Rockies’ Ellis Burks and Andres Galarraga in 1994 and Cleveland’s Paul Sorrento and Manny Ramirez in 1995.
The 27-year-old Rice entered Monday’s games leading the American League with a .343 average and tied for the lead with 30 runs scored while pacing the Majors in OBP (.455) and slugging percentage (.759).
“When he’s ready to go, he’s ready to go,” Boone said. “We’re not going to force him back in there when he’s not capable of being Benny. It’s a bruise; it’s not like he’s playing on a torn MCL. He’s going to be fine.”