Ben Rice’s grand slam gives Yankees dramatic win to keep slim AL East hopes alive

BALTIMORE – That is how to end the longest road trip of the season in style.

Ben Rice clobbered a grand slam in the top of the 10th inning, breaking a tie game and sending the Yankees to a dramatic 7-1 win over the Orioles on Sunday afternoon at Camden Yards.

The left-on-left blast marked Rice’s fourth hit of the day before the Yankees added on in the 10th to ice the win on a day when they got strong work from their bullpen.

The thriller capped off a 7-3 road trip for the Yankees (88-68), keeping their slim chances of winning the division alive while inching them closer to punching their playoff ticket.

They will enter the final homestand of the season trailing the Blue Jays (who own the tiebreaker) by two games with six to play, while holding on to the top AL wild-card spot by at least two games over the Red Sox and at least three games over the Astros, with both of those teams playing Sunday night.

Aaron Judge led off the top of the 10th with a walk before the Orioles (73-83) brought in lefty Keegan Akin to face Cody Bellinger, who roped a single to left to load the bases.

That brought up Rice, who fell behind 1-2 before getting a 95 mph fastball down the middle from Akin that he crushed 413 feet for his 24th home run of the year, sending the Yankees-heavy portion of the 31,974 in attendance into a frenzy.

One out later, Jazz Chisholm Jr. went deep again before Anthony Volpe added an RBI single.

The Yankees had wasted chances to take the lead in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, combining to strand seven runners in that span.

But their bullpen held up their end of the deal, with Luke Weaver leaving the bases loaded in the seventh, Devin Williams striking out the side in the eighth and then David Bednar stranding the winning run at second base in the ninth.

Camilo Doval then finished it off in the bottom of the 10th, playing with fire before leaving the bases loaded, to send the Yankees into their final off day of the regular season on a high note.

Cam Schlittler added to his case to be the Yankees’ third starter in the playoffs, turning in another strong start as he gave up just one run across 5 1/3 innings with one walk and six strikeouts.

The only run Schlittler gave up came on his first pitch of the fifth inning, a hanging curveball that Orioles catcher Samuel Basallo crushed 420 feet for the 1-0 lead.

But the Yankees came back to tie it up in the top of the sixth. Trent Grisham worked a one-out walk before Kyle Bradish drilled Judge on the right elbow with a 95 mph sinker.

Rice came up next and hit a sinking liner to left field that dropped just short of Dylan Carlson, scoring Grisham to tie the game at one.

One out later, though, Carlson robbed the Yankees of a chance to take the lead. Jasson Domínguez roped a fly ball to the gap in left-center field that Carlson ran down just in front of the wall to take away extra bases and end the scoring threat.