New York Yankees at Toronto Blue Jays

Mired in one of their worst offensive stretches of the season and a three-game losing streak, the Yankees eased their woes with one swing of the bat on Sunday at Rogers Centre. Despite entering the bottom of the ninth holding a 2-1 lead over the Blue Jays, some sloppy defense cost New York a shot at a nine-inning victory as first baseman Ben Rice misplayed a Josh Smith ground ball to lead off the inning. Smith would later advance to second on a walk and third on a wild pitch before coming in to score the tying run on Ernie Clement’s sacrifice fly to force extra innings. It felt like it let the air out of a New York team that has needed to scrap and claw for every run in recent days and was battling to avoid a sweep at the hands of its American League East rivals. But Rice immediately had his moment of redemption in the top of the 10th, blasting a two-run shot -- just his second homer of August -- to give the Yankees a 4-3 win and make up for his error. “It definitely felt good,” Rice said postgame. “I mean, you just gotta have as short of a memory as you possibly can, and just go out there and try to execute a plan against whoever's on the mound.” Rice’s big swing came on an afternoon when he was bumped up to the leadoff spot, part of a batting order shakeup from manager Aaron Boone in hopes of finding some more runs in this three-game series north of the border. The first baseman looked close to a breakthrough in Saturday’s loss, lofting two deep flyouts as he battled a slump that has seen his first-half .971 OPS turn into a .573 mark since the All-Star break. So to say Sunday’s game-winning jack was much needed might be an understatement. “Obviously, no one’s feeling worse at that point than Benny,” Boone said of Rice’s ninth inning. “And to come up there and essentially win the game for us in the 10th was massive. Credit to him, that’s this game. That’s being a big leaguer.”