Yankees’ Ben Rice joins Lou Gehrig in exclusive New York franchise history for RBI record

Billy Heyen

Yankees’ Ben Rice joins Lou Gehrig in exclusive New York franchise history for RBI record image

Believe it or not, this was not the first seven-RBI game of Ben Rice's New York Yankees career.

And because that's true, it means he joins one of the most exclusive, impressive lists that a Yankee can be on.

Prior to Saturday night, there was only one first baseman who had multiple seven-RBI games for the Yankees, and his name was Lou Gehrig. He had nine, for the record.

Now Rice has two. He joins the multi-7-RBI-game club.

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The Yankees needed all of that Rice production in a crazy 12-8 win over the Cardinals.

He came through for the first time in the top of the fourth inning, with the Yankees down 5-3.

With two runners on, Rice crushed a no-doubt home run to right field for a 6-5 lead.

That was still the score two frames later when Rice came to the plate with the bases loaded and emptied them with a three-run double.

It was simpler in the seventh, when Rice delivered an RBI single to make it 11-7 Yankees.

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The lefty swinger ended the night 3-for-5 with a pair of runs scored and a walk in addition to the seven runs driven in.

He raised his season average to .240 and his season OPS to .804.

Rice even overshadowed the fact that Aaron Judge hit a home run against the Cardinals to complete the list of having gone deep against all 29 other MLB teams.

The slumping Yankees needed a night like this. Rice provided it, and now he's got his name second on a list that previously only included the superhero Gehrig.

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Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle