Rice’s Six RBIs and Schlittler’s Shutout Start Overwhelm Boston

Ben Rice finished a game New York had already placed under control with a grand slam that removed any remaining doubt. His eighth-inning homer was his second of the afternoon and completed a six-RBI performance in the Yankees' 9–0 Wild Card opener against Boston on September 29.

The scoring margin became large late, but the foundation was Cam Schlittler's start. He struck out 10 over 6⅓ scoreless innings, allowing two hits and one walk. Boston did not score while the Yankees gradually built a lead, and its bullpen could not keep the gap manageable once Rice's final swing arrived.

New York took a 1–0 advantage in the best-of-three series. The opener gave the Yankees one win toward advancement and left the Red Sox needing consecutive victories to continue their postseason. The immediate consequence came from a game in which Boston generated only three hits while New York collected 12.

The lead develops slowly

Austin Wells singled in George Lombard Jr. in the second inning, giving New York its first run. Rice then homered to center in the fifth, extending the lead to 2–0. Through that stage, the Yankees had not created a comfortable scoring margin, but Schlittler had prevented Boston from forcing them to repair the score.

Schlittler threw 117 pitches to obtain 19 outs. His 10 strikeouts accounted for more than half those outs and kept the Red Sox from regularly testing New York's defense with contact. The one walk limited the additional opportunities Boston could create without getting a hit.

Payton Tolle kept the Red Sox in the game through most of his 4⅔ innings. He allowed one run on five hits and one walk, striking out four. Boston's larger problem was not that its opening pitcher immediately gave away the game. It was that the offense supplied no scoring response, and the pitchers who followed him could not preserve the narrow deficit.

Rice keeps adding value

Rice singled in Spencer Jones in the seventh, making it 3–0. Wells later scored on a double play, extending the advantage to four. That inning showed two different forms of scoring: a completed RBI hit and a run produced even as New York gave away two outs.

The Yankees then added five in the eighth. Wells' sacrifice fly scored Lombard, and Rice's grand slam brought home Ryan McMahon, Jones and Paul Goldschmidt. The game moved from 4–0 to 9–0 through a productive out and a bases-loaded home run.

Rice finished 4 for 5 with a double, two homers, six RBIs and two runs. His four hits accounted for one-third of New York's total, while his RBI contribution accounted for two-thirds of its runs. The two home runs alone produced five runs, with the seventh-inning single adding the sixth RBI.

Lombard had three hits and scored twice. Wells recorded two hits, two RBIs and a run. Jones contributed a hit, a walk and two runs. Their ability to reach base made Rice's final homer worth four rather than one and gave New York scoring opportunities beyond his earlier solo shot.

Boston's limited response

Adley Rutschman, Trevor Story and Wilyer Abreu supplied the Red Sox's three hits. Story's was a double. Boston also drew one walk and struck out 11 times, leaving it with few completed offensive sequences to challenge Schlittler or the relievers who followed.

Paul Blackburn worked 1⅔ scoreless innings, allowing one hit. John Schreiber completed another scoreless inning with one strikeout. New York's bullpen did not issue a walk, making Boston's route to a late comeback dependent on contact it was not generating often enough.

The Red Sox used Erik Miller, Greg Weissert, Alec Gamboa, Wyatt Olds and Brayan Bello after Tolle. Gamboa allowed two runs without recording an out, and Olds was charged with three in 1⅓ innings. The late relief line explains why a two-run game became a nine-run result.

Weissert supplied a scoreless inning, but Boston needed more than one clean appearance to stop the Yankees' accumulating offense. New York drew five walks across the game, adding baserunners to its 12-hit attack. Boston's staff had to manage both, and the eighth-inning grand slam converted several of those opportunities together.

What the opener established

The result gave New York both a series advantage and a clear account of how it won: Schlittler restricted Boston's offense, Lombard and others kept reaching base, and Rice delivered several different scoring blows. The final margin should not obscure the earlier innings when one Boston swing could still have tied the game.

The Yankees prevented that swing from producing a run. Rice then made the final innings increasingly unforgiving for the Red Sox. His grand slam was the closing image, but the shutout was what allowed New York's lead to grow without interruption.