It was the second lineup in a row that featured young slugger Ben Rice at the catcher spot, with Austin Wells increasingly pushed to the side amid a slump at the plate.

Yankees catcher Austin Wells admits frustration after losing starts to Ben Rice, with Paul Goldschmidt limiting lineup flexibility.

Aaron Boone is trying to balance Rice’s emergence with Austin Wells’ development, and it’s become one of the trickier lineup puzzles of the stretch run. Rice has muscled into the picture with his bat and improving glove. Boone praised the rookie’s progress on WFAN Tuesday morning.

With Austin Wells struggling at the plate and Ben Rice swinging an impact bat, the latter found himself serving as the Yankees’ starting catcher for the second consecutive night on Tuesday against

Paul Goldschmidt’s Yankees tenure looks short-lived as Ben Rice emerges as the franchise’s next long-term first baseman.

Boone and the Yankees can only hope that Wells’ two-homer night is a sign of things to come, especially entering this weekend’s four-game set with the Boston Red Sox. Their current five-game winning streak and an 8-2 stretch have the Yankees only four games behind the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East.

Yankees first. Trent Grisham homers to right field. Ben Rice grounds out to second base, Brandon Lowe to Bob Seymour. Aaron Judge walks. Cody Bellinger flies out to center field to Jake Mangum.

Prior to Saturday night, there was only one first baseman who had multiple seven-RBI games for the Yankees, and his name was Lou Gehrig. He had nine, for the record. Now Rice has two. He joins the multi-7-RBI-game club. The Yankees needed all of that Rice production in a crazy 12-8 win over the Cardinals.