Ben Rice homers and ties career high with 7 RBIs as Yankees beat Cardinals 12-8

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Ben Rice homered and tied a career high with seven RBIs, Aaron Judge also went deep in his first multi-hit game since the All-Star break and the New York Yankees beat the St. Louis Cardinals 12-8 on Saturday night.

Trent Grisham singled four times and scored four runs, and Ryan McMahon hit his first homer since being acquired by the Yankees to overcome a shaky start by Max Fried (13-5).

Masyn Winn hit a three-run homer and Nolan Gorman had a two-run shot for St. Louis as Fried yielded multiple homers for the third time this season.

Fried notched his 1,000th career strikeout when he fanned Alec Burleson immediately after Winn’s second-inning homer, but he exited after yielding seven runs on eight hits in five-plus innings. Gorman’s 389-foot blast ended his outing with no outs in the sixth.

After two-out infield singles by Winn and Burleson in the ninth, David Bednar entered and induced Ivan Herrera to foul out for his 20th save.

Sonny Gray (11-6) allowed six runs on nine hits in five innings as St. Louis lost its fourth in a row.

Rice had three of New York’s 15 hits and finished a triple short of the cycle.

In a matchup of aces, there was plenty of offense despite the Yankees playing without Giancarlo Stanton (lower body soreness) and Cody Bellinger (illness), while the Cardinals rested Brendan Donovan (left foot) and Willson Contreras (right foot) for a second straight game.

Judge led off the third with his 39th home run, which bounced off the top of the wall and into the front row of the right-field bleachers. Judge, who has played his entire career with the Yankees, has now homered against every other major league team.

He also had an RBI double in the first and drew two walks. Judge hadn’t delivered multiple hits in a game since July 13 against the Cubs.

Key moment

After putting New York ahead with a three-run homer off Gray in the fourth, Rice added a three-run double off reliever Kyle Leahy in the sixth to extend the lead to 9-5.

Key stat

With a run-scoring single in the seventh, Rice matched his RBI total from July 6, 2024, when he homered three times in a 14-4 win over Boston.

Up next

The Yankees go for the sweep Sunday, when they send RHP Will Warren (7-5, 4.34 ERA) up against St. Louis RHP Miles Mikolas (6-9, 4.97).

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb