SEATTLE — The New York Yankees walked out of T-Mobile Park on Wednesday with a 5-3 win and a series victory over the Seattle Mariners. They also walked out with a question that has no clean answer.
Cam Schlittler pitched another masterpiece. Paul Goldschmidt crushed a three-run homer. Ben Rice opened the scoring with an RBI double and closed it with a 427-foot blast in the ninth inning. Both first basemen were outstanding. Both made the case for more playing time.
Together, Goldschmidt and Rice accounted for all five Yankees runs. It was exactly the kind of performance the organization hoped for when it brought the two together. It was also exactly the kind of performance that makes Aaron Boone’s lineup decisions harder to make.
Rice opens the scoring with thunder
Rice was in the DH spot Wednesday, filling in for a resting Giancarlo Stanton, which freed up first base for Goldschmidt against right-hander George Kirby. The arrangement gave the Yankees both of their first-base options in the same lineup, and both delivered.
Rice got things going in the top of the first. With Cody Bellinger on second after stealing the bag, Rice lined a two-out double down the right-field line to score Bellinger and put New York in front 1-0. It was the kind of at-bat that has defined his opening week. He reached base eight times across the three-game series in Seattle.
His contact quality matched the results. The Baby Bomber’s three batted balls Wednesday left the bat at 108.2 mph, 102.5 mph, and 98.9 mph. Every swing was hard. None was wasted.
Boone did not hold back when asked about the 27-year-old’s week.
“His at-bats have been outstanding,” the Yankees manager said. “This whole series, really the entire trip, but especially this series, I feel like, man, the patience, not missing his pitches. He’s found a couple holes and then really good swing on that last changeup to extend the lead for us on a no-doubter to right-center. He feels dialed in to me and obviously we know what he’s capable of.”
Ben Rice was characteristically understated afterward.
“A couple bounces went my way down the line, but I think the quality of at-bat overall has been good,” the Yankees first baseman said.
Goldschmidt delivers the knockout blow
Goldschmidt had a rougher path to his big moment. Kirby struck him out looking in each of his first two plate appearances. The Yankees veteran was patient, though. In the sixth inning, Kirby left a 97 mph fastball over the middle of the plate and Goldschmidt did not miss. He clobbered it into the Mariners’ bullpen for a three-run homer, turning a 1-0 game into a 4-0 lead.
It was Goldschmidt’s first home run of the 2026 season and his first against a right-handed pitcher since June 6 of last year. He had hit only three home runs against right-handers all of last season across 366 plate appearances.
The 38-year-old also made several defensive plays at first base that kept the Mariners from extending innings. Yankees manager Boone acknowledged how much the team feeds off moments like the sixth-inning blast.
“He’s such a big part of that group in there, one of the heartbeats in there,” Boone said. “He’s been great for our culture ever since he walked in the doors last year. When he hits that ball, everyone gets a little extra excited because they want it for him because they know how much he gives to that room.”
Goldschmidt, who re-signed with the Yankees on a one-year, $4 million deal in the offseason, was candid about his understanding of his role before the season started.
“I knew coming back here that we had Benny at first and G DHing,” Goldschmidt said. “So I knew this wasn’t going to be a place, unless somebody got hurt, that I would be playing every single day. But I love these guys in this lineup, I love being a Yankee and just have so much fun here. Obviously a great team that has a chance to win. I knew what I was going to be doing, so I’m happy to do whatever they need me to do.”
A luxury problem with no easy solution
Wednesday’s game was not just a win. It was a reminder of the dilemma the Yankees are carrying into their home opener.
Rice is the designated starter at first base heading into the season. Boone confirmed that before spring training. Rice hit 26 home runs in his breakout 2025 campaign, posted a 131 OPS+ over 530 plate appearances, and entered this season as the franchise’s first baseman of the future. Those facts have not changed.
But Goldschmidt is proving he can still hurt a baseball. And Stanton, who received Wednesday off as a planned rest day, has been one of the hottest hitters on the team through the opening week. Stanton became just the fourth Yankee in franchise history to record multiple hits in each of his first five games of a season. He is not giving up the Yankees DH spot easily.
The math is straightforward and uncomfortable. Stanton occupies DH. Rice is the first baseman. That leaves no regular spot for Goldschmidt unless one of the two sits. When he starts, someone goes to the bench.
The Yankees handle it through platoon splits. Rice hit just .208 against left-handed pitching last season, while Goldschmidt posted a .981 OPS against lefties in 2025. That matchup dynamic gives Boone a lever to pull. But every time Goldschmidt enters the lineup and performs like he did Wednesday, the pressure to find him more at-bats grows louder.
The risk runs both ways. Sit Rice when he is hitting .412 through his first five games, and fans will ask why. Sit Goldschmidt after a three-run homer, and fans will ask the same question. The Yankees have the luxury of having two capable players competing for one spot. They also have the problem that comes with it.
For now, the team is 5-1 and heading home to open Yankee Stadium. Both Rice and Goldschmidt left Seattle having helped seal a series. The question of who gets the next start is something Boone will navigate one lineup card at a time.
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