ARLINGTON, Texas — Aaron Judge is no stranger to showing up next to 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 hit 10 or more 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.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. also homered, continuing to heat up, and Max Fried delivered six more shutout innings 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, Marlins (entering their Monday night game) 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 (on the left elbow), raising his OPS to 1.010 — which still trails Rice’s 1.191.
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.
In the process, he tied Orlando Cepeda and Tony Perez for 75th place on the all-time home run list with 379.
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.
It marked the third time in the past four games the Yankees hit at least three home runs.
The trio of long balls also gave the Yankees 32 home runs in their past 14 games after only hitting 14 in their first 15 games of the season.
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.
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Fried helped himself out in the fourth inning by picking off Josh Jung at first base — which has become old hat for the left-hander, but it marked the fourth straight game in which a Yankees pitcher has recorded a pickoff (following Will Warren, Ryan Weathers and Luis Gil).
That has only happened one other time in franchise history, according to Stathead, occurring in 1995 with Jack McDowell, David Cone, Scott Kamieniecki and Sterling Hitchcock.
Camilo Doval replaced Fried to start the seventh inning and promptly spoiled the shutout, giving up a home run to pinch hitter Joc Pederson that made it a 4-1 game.
Tim Hill worked around his first two walks of the season in the eighth inning before David Bednar overcame some shoddy defense behind him in the ninth — which led to an unearned run — to record his eighth save of the year.
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