Anthony Rizzo came up with just his second extra-base hit since May 12 with a double in the Yankees’ 9-5 win over the Twins on Wednesday night at the Stadium.
He entered Wednesday in a 3-for-21 rut and with a .650 OPS, 19th among qualified first basemen.
Rizzo, who went 1-for-4 in the win, insisted Wednesday he felt “good” physically.
“It’s just about getting a couple good swings off and some balls landing,’’ Rizzo said. “But you’ve got to go out and do it.
“It sucks when you’re in it and I’m definitely in it. I just have to stay positive and get my work in. It’ll come.”
The Yankees promoted Ben Rice, the organization’s 12th-ranked prospect according to MLB Pipeline, from Double-A Somerset to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
The 25-year-old has split time between catcher and first base.
“I think he can really hit and he’s done a really good job the last couple of years of developing as a catcher, too,” manager Aaron Boone said of the lefty-swinging Rice, who the Yankees selected in the 12th round of the 2021 amateur draft out of Dartmouth. “His receiving has been really good [and] he’s obviously a smart kid. But he’s a really good hitter, and I think the organization sees him that way. He obviously has a chance to be really good.”
The Yankees also released Jose Rojas from his minor league deal.
Rojas was at SWB and spent most of his time at DH.
Giancarlo Stanton hasn’t played more than 110 games in a season since 2021, but he appeared in his 55th game Wednesday night.
He’s also off to a much more productive start than the disaster that was last season.
Asked before the game if he wondered a year ago if he would get back to this level, Stanton paused before responding, “I guess that was a matter of what my body was gonna allow.”
The 25-pound weight loss in the offseason helped and he said he’s kept it off, but that he was more focused on how he is moving.
“I want to stay agile,” Stanton said of his swing.
He’s been agile enough to play regularly and produce his highest hard-hit ratio (54.8) since 2021.
The Yankees have smartly kept Stanton — who went 2-for-4 with an RBI single in the win — out of the outfield, though that has limited the opportunity of other players to take a day as DH.
“He put himself in position to play at a really high level,’’ Boone said. “He’s been a real threat in the middle of the lineup, a consistent threat.”
The key, as always, for Stanton, is easy to highlight.
“A lot of it is attributed to health and being in a good physical spot,’’ Boone said. “As well as a commitment, determination and ability to make adjustments.”
All-Star fan voting started Wednesday and Juan Soto and Aaron Judge seem like locks to start in the outfield, while Anthony Volpe has the third-highest WAR among AL shortstops, behind Kansas City’s Bobby Witt Jr. and Baltimore’s Gunnar Henderson.
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