BEN RICE IS OUT, BUT FOR HOW LONG?

The Yankees have won the first three games of the series against the Baltimore Orioles with a chance to sweep. The win came with home runs from Ben Rice and Aaron Judge and a continued streak of good luck....with the exception of one moment that could jeopardize all of that luck.

Rice started the game off with a home run in the first, but left the game after the third inning with a bruised left hand after fielding a pickoff throw from Max Fried.

 

"I read that the throw was going to going to be low. I thought it was going to be a little lower than it actually was," Rice said. "So I kind of went down quickly like it was going to be in the dirt and then it kind of just stayed up at the end. So I caught it poorly, kind of hit in the palm," read more HERE.

Rice has already had X-rays done, and they have come back negative thankfully, but now what? Deep  bruises like that can linger and that hit on the palm can make it hard to get that good grip on the bat. Any potential missed time from Rice would be a huge void for the Yankees. So far, Rice has a .343 batting average with 12 homers and 27 RBI in 33 games, with 25 starts at first base.

After the game, Rice was already saying he is feeling better, and the Yankees will approach his injury as day-to-day. Right now it sounds like the Yankees have dodged a bullet with Rice and now we all hold our breath and hope this doesn't turn into a bigger thing. We've had relatively good luck so far this season (when you compare every other recent year) with only Giancarlo Stanton being the notable exception. I'd like to keep it at that.

So I'm not gonna expect to see Rice in the lineup today....but I am gonna hope to see him in a game here very soon. Fingers crossed.

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa

BYB Senior Managing Editor

Twitter: @nyprincessj