Yankees 9, Rays 2: Rice Hits 40 and 41, McMahon Hits the Slam

Boone said 39. Rice kept swinging.

September 23, 2026 - Bronx - Aaron Boone guessed 39 home runs in spring. Ben Rice treated it like a dare. He hit his 40th in the first, a fly to right. He hit his 41st in the fourth, a fly to right-center. After the second one he found Boone in the dugout and thanked him for the inspiration.

The New York Yankees beat the Tampa Bay Rays 9-2 at Yankee Stadium. Partly cloudy. 64 degrees. Wind 13 mph in from left. First pitch 7:07 p.m. Attendance 42,238. The game lasted 2 hours, 52 minutes. New York had 12 hits and one error. Tampa Bay had six hits and one error.

Rice went 3-for-4 with a walk, two runs, and two RBI. He is the 13th Yankee to hit 40 in a season, the 36th time the club has done it, and one of three Yankees to get there within the first three years of a career. The others are Aaron Judge in 2017 and Joe DiMaggio in 1937. Rice now shares the American League lead with Pete Alonso, Yordan Alvarez, and Junior Caminero.

"It's a cool milestone," Rice said. "It's not something you go into the season really aiming for. You don't really know how it's going to go. But as I was approaching that number, it's definitely something I was hoping to achieve."

A third inning that made 2-0 look small

Ryan McMahon had already singled Spencer Jones home in the second. 2-0. The third is the inning Mason Englert (0-4) will see again.

George Lombard Jr. led it off with his sixth homer, a fly to right-center. 3-0. Luis García Jr. reached. Jazz Chisholm Jr. reached. José Caballero reached. McMahon hit a grand slam to right, his 11th homer, and it was 7-0 before Englert could get out of the inning.

Englert lasted 3 2/3: nine hits, eight earned, one walk, six strikeouts, four homers, 86 pitches. Casey Legumina, Brody Hopkins, Steven Matz, and Cole Sulser kept it from turning into 14. The damage was already in the book.

McMahon finished 2-for-4 with five RBI. He tied a career high. Boone had spent part of Wednesday talking about McMahon's offensive grind and his glove at third. McMahon answered with the loudest swing on a night that already belonged to Rice.

"I've been grinding in the cage, working, trying to get ready for the playoffs," McMahon said. "This game is tough, man. I don't think I had my best game for a lot of the season. I had solid stretches, but I'm just trying to figure it out and be a good player for the team in the postseason."

Cole's last regular-season start

Gerrit Cole (10-9) threw 5 2/3: three hits, two earned, three walks, eight strikeouts, 105 pitches, 63 strikes. It was a season high in pitches and his last scheduled start before October. He is 10-9 with a 3.61 ERA in 22 starts after coming back in late May from Tommy John surgery in March 2025.

Tampa Bay got to him twice. Jonny DeLuca doubled Liam Hicks home in the fourth. Cedric Mullins hit his 15th in the fifth, a fly to right. That was the Rays' night on the scoreboard. DeLuca went 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI, and two stolen bases. Mullins went 1-for-4 with the homer. Jonathan Aranda went 0-for-4. Victor Mesa Jr. walked and did not get a hit. Jorge Mateo singled and struck out three times.

"It's very exciting," Cole said. "I'm still maybe a little disappointed that we didn't accomplish our ultimate goal of the division. But we have a chance to do something special in October."

Brent Headrick, John Schreiber, and Tim Hill finished the sixth and seventh. Paul Blackburn threw a scoreless eighth. David Bednar threw a clean ninth, one strikeout, 16 pitches. Heliot Ramos added a sacrifice fly in the eighth. Ali Sánchez scored. 9-2.

Judge did not play. He still talked about Rice like a teammate who never leaves the building. "I can look up at the clock and I know exactly where he's going to be, in the cage, the training room, the weight room," Judge said. "Every single day, this guy is a machine."

Four games left, and a Wild Card to sort

New York is 91-67. Tampa Bay is 96-62. A 9-2 in late September does not rewrite the East. It does let Cole walk off the regular season with eight punchouts and it lets Rice sit on 41 with four games to push the number.

Boone said he was close on the spring guess and that Rice went soaring past it. Rice said he does not set out for certain numbers. He just tries to hit the ball hard. On Wednesday the ball left the yard twice, McMahon hit the slam, and the Rays never got closer than seven after the third.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine (our projection and scoring system) put New York at 19 team fantasy points, first on the slate. Rice had 14 hitting FP. McMahon had 10. Cole had 13.66 pitching FP.

Fantasy points measure the night under platform scoring rules. Share prices also move with traders through dynamic pricing. They are related. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: ESPN recap and box score, MLB.com Gameday wrap, MLB.com schedule, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*