Ben Rice's inexplicable playoff HR crown, Junior Caminero flop serve as rare Yankees silver linings

The Milwaukee Brewers are World Series champions, yet somehow the New York Yankees, who last played October baseball weeks ago, were the target of strays. Brewers manager Pat Murphy had some choice words that we won't repeat here about the Yankees while presenting former Yankee-turned-Brewers star Jake Bauers with the game ball.

Weird that so long after the dynasty years folks still feel the need to knock the Yankees down a peg or two as if they haven't slid seven or eight pegs down over the last two decades. Even weirder, this postseason's home run champ hasn't played since October 7. That's right folks, meet 2026 playoff home run king Ben Rice.

With four October dingers, the lefty-mashing, Bad Bunny-singing rising star topped Brewers catcher William Contreras and Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy for the league lead, despite playing significantly fewer games than either player.

That just further highlights how good Rice was in the playoffs, and how the rest of the team's underperformance robbed us of an epic performance for the ages. As it stands, his .421/.500/1.105 this October will go down as one of the most impressive postseason showings in franchise history.

Seriously. It's flown under the radar a bit (for good reason) just how good Rice was. His 1.605 OPS was better than any performance Babe Ruth, Reggie Jackson, or Derek Jeter ever authored. Only Lou Gehrig stands in front of him.

While Ben Rice was a star, Rays slugger Junior Caminero disappeared following the Yankees series

Remember when Junior Caminero stood on the field at Yankee Stadium, broke out his imaginary broom, and swept the Yankees off the field? Well, if you're going to ask for the spotlight, you might want to perform or risk getting roasted yourself.

That's a lesson that Caminero is about to learn. Not only did his Rays put forth a particularly sloppy performance to begin the World Series that had Junior losing his mind in the dugout, but his club was clearly outclassed by Milwaukee during the showdown. Worse yet, Caminero didn't do his part.

In the ALCS and World Series combined, Caminero hit just .238 with a .670 OPS. Superstars can't do it all alone, but they definitely don't win anything by shrinking in the biggest moments, Junior. Perhaps when the voters are deciding whether Rice or Caminero has a better MVP case, they'll look back on (admittedly something that isn't a consideration) the discrepancy in playoff performances and think about what that says about each player.

Is it petty to kick Caminero when he's down? Absolutely, but he started it. Moreover, we Yankees fans need as many silver linings as we can get right about now, and Rice's epic performance paired with Caminero's meltdown is about the best we're going to get.

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