Rice cooks up a 7 RBI night as the Yankees Out-slug the Cardinals 12-8

St. Louis —The Yankees took down the Cardinals 12-8 in a slug-fest to win the series, the first time the Yankees have won back-to-back series since the end of May. Max Fried got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against former Yankee Sonny Gray. 

Trent Grisham led off the ballgame with a single to right field, and Ben Rice followed that up with a four-pitch walk. Aaron Judge then got the scoring started with an RBI double to left field to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. A couple of batters later, Jasson Dominguez tacked on another run via an RBI single to make it a 2-0 game. 

In the bottom of the first inning, the Cardinals quickly responded with an RBI single from Iván Herrera to make it a 2-1 game. 

In the bottom of the second inning, the Cardinals tied the game up at 2-2 thanks to an RBI single from Victor Scott II. The next batter, Masyn Winn, launched a three-run home run to make it a 5-2 Cardinals lead, as Fried's struggles over the last month and a half continue. 

Aaron Judge launched his 39th home run of the season to lead off the top of the third inning, just out of the reach of the leaping Scott in center field to make it a 5-3 game. 

José Caballero laid down a perfect bunt single with one out in the top of the fourth inning. Grisham followed that up with a single to right, allowing Caballero to first to third, his third hit of the night. The next batter, Rice crushed a three-run bomb 429 feet away, his 18th home run, to give the Yankees a 6-5 lead. 

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Fried worked around a one-out infield single and picked up two strikeouts to put together a nice shutdown inning. 

Fried worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the fifth inning thanks to a beautiful diving play from Volpe and a nice pick from Rice at first base. 

Austin Wells led off the top of the sixth inning with a much-needed single, as he was 5-for-his-last-52 before that hit. The next batter, Caballero, picked up a single of his own, his second knock of the night. Grisham followed that up with a single up the middle to load the bases with nobody out, his fourth hit of the game. Rice then just missed a grand slam but did pick up a bases-clearing double off the base of the wall in right center to make it a 9-5 ballgame and a six RBI night for Rice. 

Fried came back out for the bottom of the sixth inning and served up a double followed by a two-run home run to Nolan Gorman to make it a 9-7 game. Devin Williams replaced Fried on the mound and recorded three strikeouts to keep it a two-run game. 

Max Fried's final line: five plus innings pitched, eight hits allowed, seven earned runs, one walk, nine swings and misses, and six strikeouts on 94 pitches. Fried threw his cutter 23% of the time, the curveball 18%, the sweeper 17%, the sinker 17%, the fastball 16%, the changeup 7%, and the slider 1% of the time. Fired has to be better; he is starting to get really frustrating to watch, he has a 6.80 ERA since July 1. 

"In my career, I've been able to, you know, even if I'm behind in the count, still find a way to be able to get a ground ball, get some weak contact, be able get some outs," Fried said, "So, it's frustrating in this stretch that I haven't been able do that and it's putting us in holes. So, I definitely have to change something and change it up quick." 

In the top half of the seventh inning, Ryan McMahon crushed his first home run as a Yankee, and his 17th of the year, to make it a 10-7 game.

Caballero then worked a walk and immediately stole second base, his MLB-leading 38th stolen base of the season. Caballero then stole third for his 39th stolen base of the year, followed by a walk from Grisham. Rice then picked up an RBI single to make it an 11-7 game, matching a career high in RBIs for Rice with seven. The next batter Judge, worked a walk to load the bases, Jazz Chisholm Jr. picked up a sacrifice fly to make it a 12-7 game. 

"Well, I mean, good things happen when you get guys on base," Rice said. "You know, pitchers know they've got to attack you. So it's just a credit to this lineup. Getting guys on bass, getting traffic out there. And I was fortunately able to capitalize on good pitches." 

Yerry De Los Santos took over for Williams on the bump in the bottom of the seventh inning and faced the minimum, thanks to a double play to end the inning. 

De Los Santos remained in the game for the bottom of the eighth inning and worked a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout. 

Mark Leiter Jr. replaced De Los Santos in the bottom of the ninth inning and served up a one-out solo home run to Pedro Pagés to make it a 12-8 game. Leiter then served up back-to-back infield singles with two outs to put the tying run in the on-deck circle and make it a save situation. David Bednar took over for Leiter and picked up the final out of the ballgame to give the Yankees a 12-8 win as well as a series win. 

The Yankees will try to complete the sweep tomorrow with Will Warren on the mound, facing off against Miles Mikolas. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:15 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: Fried struggled once again, as he has to turn it around fast if the Yankees want any chance of making it to the playoffs and making a run in October. Thankfully, the offense picked him up in a big way with 12 runs. Grisham had four hits tonight, including his 500th career hit. Rice had three hits and seven RBIs, which tied a career high. Judge had a big night with a home run, a double, and two RBIs. McMahon finally got the monkey off his back and crushed his first home run as a Yankee after 19 games. Dominguez and Caballero also each had two knocks. Just a really impressive night from the offense tonight with Cody Bellinger, Giancarlo Stanton, and Paul Goldschmidt all on the bench. The bullpen also did their job as Williams had a great outing with three punchouts. De Los Santos worked two scoreless innings, and Bednar closed this one out to pick up Leiter, who had a shaky performance. On to tomorrow, as the Yankees will look to complete the sweep since they swept the Mariners at the beginning of July. 

"I mean, we have confidence in a lot of our guys here," Grisham said. "And tonight it just all came to fruition, a bunch of different guys up and down the lineup, helping us out in a bunch of different ways. So it was a lot of fun to be a part of tonight."