Yankees' Aaron Boone crushed for 'touchdown' Ben Rice strategy

Yankees' Aaron Boone crushed for 'touchdown' Ben Rice strategy originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Ben Rice has been the New York Yankees' best hitter so far this season.

But on both Monday and Tuesday, manager Aaron Boone had Rice on the bench to start games.

Nominally, that's because the Yankees were facing left-handed starting pitchers, and Boone wanted to get righty Paul Goldschmidt in the lineup at first base instead.

In reality, it's probably a questionable move.

That's particularly true of Tuesday night, when Angels starter Reid Detmers actually entered the game with worse career numbers against lefties than against righties.

Rice got in the game, but by the time he did, the Yankees were down 7-0. He hit a sacrifice fly.

This is how The Athletic's Chris Kirschner described the move:

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Barstool's Eric Hubbs added his sarcasm to the mix:

At this point, given Rice's talent level, there's really no reason to ever sit him. He's a guy that should play as close to 162 games as possible.

With him in the lineup, maybe it wouldn't take the Yankees until the eighth inning to score a lone run.

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