Exciting Ben Rice homer only made Yankees' meltdown loss to Pirates far more damaging

Even when the New York Yankees can find a rally in their bones, they somehow manage to make the ultimate outcome of the game even worse than if they'd never risen from their grave in the first place. It truly takes a special talent to do what they do — and that one-of-a-kind talent was again on display in the opener on Wednesday's doubleheader against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Though the Yankees somehow have the most wins in the American League — 16! — after being tied or trailing in the eighth inning or later, per Katie Sharp, they also possess a unique ability to break your heart with an almost-good-enough rally. Sunday Night Baseball at Fenway Park: Erase the deficit in the ninth against Aroldis Chapman, score two in the 10th, hold it for a nanosecond and wither/die. A few days later against the Tigers at home: Tie it in the ninth, winning run at third after a scoreless top of the 10th ... you'll never guess where that batter went, and you'll never guess what Camilo Doval did to finish it off.

And now there's Wednesday against the Bucs, which seemed like a sleepy loss to Mitch Keller wherein Gerrit Cole held his own and did his job, though he was victimized by two longballs. He got through seven frames and saved the bullpen for the nightcap, a game where Max Fried is only slated to provide 60-ish pitches at best. Job well done? Well, no. Winning's the job, and that was done poorly. But at least they accomplished a half-goal.

Until Ben Rice rallied the troops with a game-tying shot in the seventh inning! That necessitated the use of Brent Headrick, a sweaty David Bednar, and Fernando Cruz, who could not find the plate and brought defeat upon the home crowd in the 10th.

Unsurprisingly, the Yankees, down two, could not even score the single free runner in the bottom of the frame. The Pirates would've handed it to them on two groundouts. They didn't want it. Keep that "one-run game record" untouched, you know?

Ben Rice is incredible. No complaints about him. He walks on water around these parts.

Yankees' 10th-inning meltdown rendered Ben Rice rally irrelevant vs. Pirates

But the men around him in the lineup? Their failures to score an additional run have gravely impacted Wednesday night's game, and potentially beyond. Thankfully, there's an off day coming, the only type of day on which the New York Yankees cannot lose (as long as the Boston Red Sox are also off).

There were many semi-heroes on Wednesday afternoon. In a just world, we'd be crowning Rice and considering handing the Game Belt to Kervin Castro, our new escape artist. Instead, we're sitting here tired and ragged, worse off than if this game had merely been run-of-the-mill and dull-as-hell.

And it's a very special kind of hell. Red Sox won again. That's 15. No bullpen burnt over there. We're only crisped in our corner.

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