ARLINGTON, Texas — Aaron Judge is no stranger to showing up next to the all-time greats in the Yankees record book.
Now he is bringing Ben Rice with him.
Rice and Judge crushed back-to-back homers in the third inning Monday night, joining select Yankee company and providing the jet fuel for a 4-2 win over the Rangers at Globe Life Field.
With Rice’s 10th home run of the year and Judge’s 11th, they became only the second pair of Yankees teammates to each hit 10-plus home runs in the team’s first 29 games of a season, according to MLB.com’s Sarah Langs.
The other was Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle in 1956.
“I’m glad I don’t have to face them, let’s just put it that way,” said Max Fried, who delivered six more shutout innings. “Those are two of the best hitters in the game.”
Jazz Chisholm Jr. also homered, continuing to heat up, as the Yankees (19-10) won for the ninth time in their past 10 games.
Judge has had a few different wingmen over the years, including Giancarlo Stanton and Juan Soto, but now Rice looks like the latest as the two sluggers have been on a tear to start the season — their combined 21 home runs more than the Giants, Brewers, Mets and Red Sox each have as a team.
Judge’s long ball was just part of his big night, as he added a pair of doubles and was hit by a pitch, raising his OPS to 1.010 — which still trails Rice’s 1.191, both in the top four of the majors.
“Tremendous,” manager Aaron Boone said of the duo. “Obviously Benny’s off to an amazing start. Judgey’s a ho-hum 11 homers already. Maybe his best game of at-bats tonight, where he’s on all four times, stings two doubles, smokes the homer. It’s a pretty good combo there.”
At least for a few minutes, Rice tied Judge for the team lead in homers when he crushed a two-run shot off Jack Leiter in the third inning.
The first baseman went the other way for a 404-foot blast, showing impressive opposite-field power for his sixth home run in his past 11 games.
Judge then one-upped Rice and clobbered a 414-footer at 113 mph off the bat, landing right around where his record-setting 62nd home run did in left field here in 2022.
“Man, [Rice’s] ball was pummeled,” Boone said. “This is a ballpark, they’ll tell you, it doesn’t yield a lot of home runs. To hit a line drive into the bullpen the other way, impressive. The only thing more impressive was the [113] breaking ball that Judgey rifled into the seats right after him.
“That was a little bit of a, ‘Hold [my] beer’ moment.”
Rice said that after Judge got back to the dugout, the three-time AL MVP joked, “I’m not going to let Benny catch me.”
“So just trying to keep him honest, keep him motivated,” Rice said with a grin. “He’s getting a little complacent, so.”
Judge said he has been most impressed by the consistency of Rice’s at-bats.
“It’s must-watch TV at this point,” Judge said. “Benny Rice has been our sparkplug all year and he’s going to continue to do that.”
An inning later, Chisholm joined the home run parade, swatting his third in the past five games — after going 23 games without one to start the year — to put the Yankees ahead 4-0, marking the third time in the last four games that the Yankees hit at least three home runs.
That was plenty of support for Fried, who did not allow a run for the fourth time in seven starts this season.
Coming off eight shutout innings against the Red Sox, Fried turned in six scoreless frames against the Rangers (14-15) in which he scattered four singles and two walks while striking out five.
He also became the fourth straight Yankees starter to record a pickoff, which has only been done one other time in franchise history.
“We worked really hard on it in spring training and we’ve been executing well so far,” Fried said. “Really proud of them and I know they’ve been taking it very seriously.”
