ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Ben Rice has not looked like himself for a month. For one swing Monday night, none of that mattered.
The Yankees first baseman drove his 25th home run of the season into the seats, stretching a lead over the Tampa Bay Rays to 5-1 and giving his club breathing room in a game it badly needed.
The blast did more than pad the score. It pushed Rice into two pieces of Yankees history that only a handful of names share.
For a franchise stacked with legendary sluggers, joining either list is rare. Rice landed on both before the All-Star break.
The milestone matters because of the company it keeps and the timing behind it. Rice reached 25 homers while slogging through the worst stretch of his young career, a reminder of how much power he has even when little else is working. With Aaron Judge sidelined, that power has rarely been more valuable to the lineup.
A club built on early-career power
The first list tracks players who posted multiple 25-homer seasons within their first three years with the club. It is a short and glittering group.
Joe DiMaggio did it three years running from 1936 to 1938, the opening act of a Hall of Fame career. Joe Gordon matched him with three straight from 1938 to 1940.
After that, the names thin out. Joe Pepitone reached the mark twice in 1963 and 1964, and Aaron Judge did it in 2017 and 2018.
Rice now joins them. His 25 homers in 2026, following 26 as a rookie in 2025, give him two such seasons to open his career.
It is a who’s who of Bronx thump, and Rice is the only active name on the list, standing beside the very captain he is trying to cover for in the lineup.
Rare air among Yankees first basemen
The second list is just as select. It counts first basemen for the club who reached 25 home runs before the All-Star break.
Tino Martinez got there with 28 in 1997. Jason Giambi did it twice, with 26 in 2003 and 27 in 2006.
Mark Teixeira reached exactly 25 by the break in 2011. Now Rice has joined them at 25 and counting, with games still to play before the midsummer classic.
That group represents the best first-base power the franchise has seen this century, and Rice has matched it in just his second full season.
The pop is no fluke. Rice built his breakout on elite pull-side power at Yankee Stadium, and he entered the season ranked among the game’s leaders in hard-hit rate and barrel rate. That profile is what made him an All-Star this year.
A milestone reached in a deep slump
What makes the achievement stranger is how quietly Rice has been struggling. His production cratered after Judge went down in late May.
Entering Monday, Rice had hit just .200 with a .298 on-base percentage and a .391 slugging mark across that span. He had seven homers but only 12 RBIs and a 91 wRC+, a figure below league average.
The deeper numbers were harsher still. Rice had been worth minus-0.1 wins above replacement during the slide, one of four Yankees carrying a negative figure in that stretch.
That context frames the 25th homer as both a milestone and a plea. The power is real, but the Yankees need the rest of his game to follow.
Why the Yankees need more from Rice
The stakes are tied to the standings. The win moved the Yankees to within three games of the first-place Rays in the AL East, but the margin for error is thin.
Without Judge in the middle of the order, the offense has leaned on a shrinking group of producers. Rice, an All-Star this season, is meant to be one of the anchors.
The timeline adds urgency. Judge remains weeks from a return, which means the club has no choice but to lean on Rice and hope the swing that produced No. 25 signals the end of his skid.
A single home run does not end a month-long slump. It does, however, offer a reminder of the ceiling that made Rice a centerpiece of the Yankees’ plans in the first place.
The historic homer gives Rice something to build on as the Yankees push toward the break. Whether it sparks a turnaround, or stands as a lonely highlight in a rough month, is the question now hanging over the Bronx.
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