Rice Powers Yankees Past Rays in 9-2 Rout
The Yankees are figuring out the Rays quickly this season, and Wednesday night was the clearest evidence yet. New York hammered Tampa Bay 9-2, turning what had been a back-and-forth stretch of games into a laugher behind another big night from Ben Rice.
This marks the third meeting between these two clubs in recent days, and the results have swung wildly — a 6-1 Rays win, a tight 2-0 Yankees shutout, and now this 9-2 rout. But Wednesday felt different. New York's lineup clicked from top to bottom, and Tampa Bay never found an answer.
Rice was the whole story. The Dartmouth product went off for 60.0 fantasy points, the kind of night that changes the tenor of a matchup and gets a lineup rolling. Whatever mix of hits and damage made up that line, it was clearly the game's foundation. Ryan McMahon backed him up in a big way at third base, posting 47.5 fantasy points of his own — a one-two punch in the middle of the order that Tampa Bay's pitching staff had no answer for all night.
On the mound, Gerrit Cole did what Gerrit Cole does against this opponent. The right-hander turned in 37.7 fantasy points, another step in an early-season pattern of the Yankees leaning on their ace to set the tone against a division rival. With Rice and McMahon doing damage and Cole controlling the game, Tampa Bay was chasing from the jump.
New York's depth showed up everywhere. George Lombard Jr. chipped in 21.0 fantasy points at shortstop, Jazz Chisholm Jr. added 19.0 at second base, and Heliot Ramos contributed 14.5 in left field. Even further down the order, Luis García Jr. and Spencer Jones each posted 10.5. When a lineup gets that kind of production from six or seven spots, a final score like 9-2 stops being a surprise and starts looking almost inevitable.
Tampa Bay wasn't without bright spots, even in defeat. Jonny DeLuca was excellent, putting together a 37.0-point performance in right field that at least kept things from looking like a total mismatch individually. Cedric Mullins was solid in center with 26.0 points. But beyond those two, the offense had little to offer. Brody Hopkins started and managed just 10.0 fantasy points, and Steven Matz, working out of the bullpen or in relief duty, was even quieter at 5.5. Catcher Liam Hicks added 9.5 and reliever Casey Legumina chipped in 8.8, but none of it was enough to slow down a Yankees attack that had answers everywhere.
The bigger picture here is about early-season momentum. New York came into Wednesday with a mixed bag of results — a tight win over the Rays, a lopsided loss to the Rays, and two losses to Arizona sandwiched in between. This was the get-right game they needed, a chance to reassert control after a stretch of games that had gone back and forth. They did exactly that, and they did it emphatically.
For Tampa Bay, the concern is different. The Rays had shown they could hang with New York in low-scoring, tightly played games. Wednesday reversed all of that. When DeLuca and Mullins are your only real offensive threats and the rest of the lineup goes quiet, results like this are the outcome. The pitching staff didn't help matters either, with Hopkins and Matz both turning in modest lines that let the Yankees pull away early and never look back.
It's Week 1 of a long season, and one lopsided result won't define either club. But for New York, riding Rice's monster night and Cole's steady hand atop the rotation, this is the kind of statement win that can carry into the next matchup. For Tampa Bay, it's a reminder that consistency, especially in the middle of the lineup, is going to be the difference between competing with the Yankees and getting run off the field by them.
Rice's huge fantasy output on Wednesday made him an obvious centerpiece for anyone building a JockBroker lineup this week, and performances like that are exactly why staying on top of early-season form matters heading into the next matchup.
