In what’s been an almost ideal start to their season, the Yankees got a scare Sunday when Ben Rice was removed from their 11-3 win over the Orioles at the Stadium with what the team said was a left hand contusion.

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He is considered day to day, as X-rays were negative.

The injury occurred on a pickoff play in the top of the third, when Max Fried tried to pick Weston Wilson off first base.

Rice said he anticipated having to pick the ball out of the dirt, but it stayed up and caught him in the palm.

“I caught it poorly,’’ Rice said.

Rice, who homered in the first inning, initially remained in the game and doubled on a pop-up to shallow left in the bottom of the third — following the pickoff play — and scored on Aaron Judge’s homer later in the inning.

But Paul Goldschmidt took over at first base to start the fourth.

“It started to feel better and when I ramped up the intensity, it didn’t feel great,” Rice said. “I couldn’t engage my top hand on the swing.”

Rice and Aaron Boone said they would wait to see how he felt Monday before determining whether he’ll need to miss any time.

The fact that the injury wasn’t serious was a relief to the Yankees, especially as Rice continues to hit.

He has 12 homers on the season — trailing only Judge and the White Sox’ Munetaka Murakami — and emerged as one of the most dangerous hitters in the majors.

And it was noted that Judge homered just two innings after Rice tied him for the team lead.

“It goes without saying he’s not gonna let me catch him,’’ Rice said with a laugh. “Any time I’m mentioned in the same sentence as him, I’m thrilled.”

Rice has the highest OPS in the majors (1.214), and after entering the season with questions about whether the left-handed hitter would be able to hit southpaws consistently, he’s answered with five homers and an OPS of 1.324 in those spots.

Alongside Judge, Rice has given the Yankees one of the best 1-2 punches in the game and he’s been at least serviceable defensively at first.

The Yankees bullpen tossed three shutout innings in relief of Max Fried, with Fernando Cruz getting a double play from Jeremiah Jackson to end the top of the sixth and lefty Brent Headrick recording five outs.

Boone said he didn’t have many of his lefty relievers available to face the righty-heavy Baltimore lineup, but they did the job.

Yovanny Cruz, the hard-throwing right-hander who impressed during spring training, has been solid at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and the Yankees have noticed.

“He’s been pretty dominant down there,” Boone said of Cruz, who tops 100 mph and has pitched well after being sidelined by a shoulder issue in the spring.

“He got everyone’s attention [in the spring] and carried that into Triple-A.”

He still needs to work on his command and ability to hold runners on, Boone said.