Aaron Judge and Ben Rice achieve home run milestone similar to Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra with the Yankees

Yankees Players Shine in Victory Over Rangers

On Monday night, the New York Yankees secured a 4-2 win against the Texas Rangers, with standout performances from Aaron Judge and Ben Rice.

In the third inning, Rice launched a two-run homer off Rangers pitcher Jack Leiter, putting the Yankees ahead. Following that, Judge hit his own solo home run, marking his 11th of the season, while Rice’s was his 10th.

This achievement made Judge and Rice the first Yankee teammates to each hit at least 10 home runs within the first 29 games of a season since the legendary Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra did so in 1956.

In that year, Mantle led MLB with 52 home runs, while Berra hit 30. “After he hit it, he said, ‘I’m not going to let Benny catch me,’” Rice recalled about Judge. “Just trying to keep him honest and motivated.”

As for their current stats, Judge is batting .252 with 11 RBIs and an OPS of 1.010, while Rice is doing even better with a .322 average, 23 RBIs, and a 1.192 OPS.

Judge praised Rice’s consistency: “He’s a must-watch show at this point. He’s either putting something hard in play or taking a walk—it’s impressive just to watch.”

When asked about following Judge’s stellar performance throughout the season, Rice expressed his appreciation for the moment: “Well, I don’t know how long this will last, but I’m enjoying it. It’s cool, and I definitely didn’t expect anything like this.”