NEW YORK — The Yankees had barely settled into Wednesday night before another first-inning problem arrived.
Houston struck first at Yankee Stadium when Jose Altuve drove a ball to deep center that eluded Trent Grisham and scored Isaac Paredes. The Astros had a 1-0 lead, rookie starter Elmer Rodriguez was working from behind, and a lineup trying to create cleaner starts faced an immediate test.
Ben Rice answered before the inning could get away. Facing right-hander Peter Lambert with one out, Rice jumped on a 94.6 mph four-seam fastball and drove it to right field.
The ball left his bat at 107.4 mph, carried 363 feet and tied the game at 1. It was Rice’s 35th home run of the season and another reminder that his power has remained a constant for the Yankees.
The Yankees did not stop with Rice. Luis Garcia Jr. singled, Cody Bellinger reached as a throwing play unraveled, and George Lombard Jr. brought Garcia home with a groundout. New York left the first inning with a 2-1 lead, then kept answering each time Houston tried to pull even.
The Yankees eventually turned a close game into a 9-3 win. Bellinger broke a 3-3 tie with a two-run double in a four-run seventh, Spencer Jones followed with an RBI single and Jazz Chisholm Jr. added a run-scoring double. Garcia supplied a two-run homer in the eighth.
The result pushed the Yankees to 75-57, their seventh win in nine games, while keeping them 3.5 games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East and 2.5 games ahead of Boston for the American League’s top wild-card spot.
The homer also continued Rice’s climb among the American League’s top power hitters. Through Wednesday, the 27-year-old was batting .251 with 35 home runs, 83 RBIs and an .879 OPS. MLB’s updated rankings placed him second in the AL in homers, one behind Houston’s Yordan Alvarez, third in slugging percentage and fourth in OPS.
Rice stops Yankees one game before history
Rice’s first-inning homer carried a second meaning that did not show up in the final margin. It ended a 23-game Yankees streak without a run in the first inning, the club’s first opening-frame run since July 20.
New York stopped one game short of matching the franchise record of 24 consecutive games without scoring in the first, a mark dating to 1941.
That made Rice’s swing a narrow escape from an 85-year-old piece of unwanted Yankees history.
One more scoreless first inning would have tied a record created during the Joe DiMaggio era. Instead, Rice erased the threat on one pitch after Houston had already put New York behind.
The sequence changed the inning immediately. Rather than asking Rodriguez and the Yankees pitching staff to carry another early deficit, Rice restored a tie and allowed the lineup to keep pressure on Lambert.
By the end of the frame, New York had scored twice, more first-inning runs than it had produced across the previous 23 games combined.
Drought produced more than three strikeouts for every hit
During the drought, Yankees hitters went 7-for-73 in first innings, a .096 average, with nine walks and 25 strikeouts. That works out to more than 3.5 strikeouts for every hit in those opening frames, an extreme imbalance for a lineup built to pressure opposing starters.
Rice did not need a long at-bat to reverse it. Lambert’s fastball came over the plate, and Rice drove it on a 23-degree launch angle. His 107.4 mph exit velocity turned a 1-0 deficit into a tie before Houston could settle into its lead.
Rice gives Yankees an answer at top of lineup
Rice finished 1-for-2 with three walks and scored three times, reaching base in four of five plate appearances. The broader line mattered because the Yankees did not need him to carry the offense after the first inning.
His early homer created the first response, then the lineup expanded the game around him.
New York collected 13 hits while Houston managed four. Chisholm had three hits, Garcia had three and Bellinger’s double supplied the decisive blow. Still, Rice’s first swing stood apart because it ended the oldest problem attached to the night.
A first inning that began with another Yankees defensive mistake became the inning that finally broke the streak.
The Yankees also received six-plus innings from Rodriguez in his first major league start since June 21. He allowed three runs on three hits, struck out six and walked two.
Paul Blackburn inherited trouble in the seventh, allowed the tying run to score on an error, then escaped a bases-loaded jam. Blackburn earned the win to improve to 6-2. Bennett Sousa took the loss and fell to 1-3. No save was awarded.
A small streak ends inside a bigger postseason race
The Yankees have larger concerns than first-inning scoring as August closes, but the timing mattered. New York is chasing Tampa Bay for the division while protecting its wild-card position, and games against contenders leave less room for slow starts.
The Yankees found ways to win during the drought, but repeatedly asking the pitching staff and bullpen to work without early support created an avoidable burden.
Rice removed that burden Wednesday, at least for one night. His homer did not decide the game by itself, but it prevented the Yankees from matching the franchise record and helped set up the kind of complete offensive night the club needs during the postseason race.
The Yankees entered Thursday’s series finale against Houston with the first-inning streak gone, Rice sitting one homer off the AL lead and the lineup coming off nine runs.
What had been an approaching 85-year embarrassment ended instead with Rice’s first-inning shot disappearing into the right-field seats.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
