The New York Yankees staged a dramatic 5-4 walk-off win over the Los Angeles Angels Wednesday, setting themselves up to win the four-game series with a victory on Thursday.
But before the afternoon start for the series finale at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees made an announcement about left-handed slugger Ben Rice, who went 0-for-4 in Wednesday’s game, dropping his OPS from first to fourth overall in MLB (1.156).
Yankees Make Ben Rice Announcement Before Angels Game
After benching Rice in two straight games to start the Angels series, manager Aaron Boone penciled Rice into the starting lineup Thursday, even though the Angels are sending a left-handed starter to the mound.
The Angels started left-handers in both games that saw Boone start Rice on the bench.
The decision to give Rice the start comes two days after television broadcast cameras caught a visibly upset Rice in the Yankees dugout, apparently venting to team captain Aaron Judge. In that game, the second of the four-game set, Rice came in late in the game as a pinch hitter, delivering the Yankees’ only run on a sacrifice fly in a 7-1 defeat for the Bronx Bombers.
Whether that outburst played a role in Boone’s decision to start Rice against a left-hander remains unclear. But at least one significant factor may indicate that Rice’s discontent did not factor into Boone’s decision.
Angels Going With Bullpen Game in Finale
According to the posted starting lineups ahead of Thursday’s game, the Angels will start left-hander Brent Suter. But Suter, who has not pitched in five days for Los Angeles, has been used only in relief this season. In fact, over the last two seasons, both with the Cincinnati Reds, Suter has appeared in 95 games, but started only six.
In other words, Suter will be an opener only as Angels manager Kurt Suzuki goes with a bullpen game.
Boone has Rice, playing first base, batting fifth, perhaps in hopes that Suter will be out of the game before Rice gets an at-bat. So it appears Boone is still not ready to commit to Rice as much more than a platoon player.
Boone Denies Rice Is Strictly Platoon Hitter
Publicly, at least, Boone adamantly denies that he plans to use Rice, who comes into Thursday’s game with an attention-grabbing slash line of .333/.470/.686, primarily against right-handed starters going forward.
âHell no,â Boone told reporters in answer to the righties-only question about Rice. âIâve just been able to use him so much in these games, and I cherry-pick the at-bat and aggressively insert him. Also, in the early season, it keeps (Paul Goldschmidt) in play, who is so good against lefties.â
How has Rice hit against left-handed pitching in his short career?
If Boone believes that Rice has not shown the same ability to hit southpaws as he has against right-handers â heâs right. In his career, Rice has come to the plate against right-handed pitchers 597 times and produced an OPS of .852 with 29 home runs.
But against left-handed pitching, in 177 plate appearances, Rice has turned in an OPS of just .673 with eight homers. In fact, Rice has a batting average of only .197 against lefties, compared to .256 against right-handers.
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