Raul Ibanez delivers when it matters most in Yankees' 4-3 win vs. Red Sox
Ibanez merely delivered the biggest hit of the season, a game-tying, two-run home run in the ninth inning against the Red Sox when the Yankees were about to fall back into a first-place tie with the Orioles.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2012
Way back in spring training, I was making the case to Yankees GM Brian Cashman that he had signed the wrong guy to be the Yankees’ DH.
Raul Ibanez? But what about Johnny Damon? He was the one who had proven he could deliver in October for the Yankees, and really, isn’t that all that counts for this ballclub?
Cashman said he preferred the 40-year-old Ibanez in part for his defense, believing he would need him to play some outfield this season. But then he added the clincher:
“Everybody tells me this guy is as tough and prepared as anybody in the game,’’ the GM said. “So I’ll take my chances with him if we need a big hit.’’
Game, set and match for Cashman, you’d have to say, after this night.
Ibanez merely delivered the biggest hit of the season, a game-tying, two-run home run in the ninth inning against the Red Sox when the Yankees were about to fall back into a first-place tie with the Orioles.
And for good measure he delivered the game-winner as well, a single to left in the 12th inning that scored Francisco Cervelli, giving the Yankees a 4-3 victory that could spare them the nightmare scenario of a playoff game Thursday for the division and a wild-card playoff game on Friday.
Indeed, they maintained a one-game lead on the Orioles and with a win on Wednesday night, the final day of the season, they can finally lock up the division title.
All because Ibanez had his 2009 Johnny Damon moment, if you will, when it mattered most.
“It’s awesome to be part of something like this tonight,” he said in the clubhouse, “especially at a time like this when we really need the wins.”
It’s true, what has been so impressive is that when the Yankees have needed it most, they’ve played with a championship grit that seemed to be missing for most of the season. The search was on all year for clutch hits — and maybe a little bit of that toughness to which Cashman had referred when making his case for Ibanez months ago.
So it is fitting that Ibanez has delivered in such a huge way — and not only on Tuesday night. It was only 10 days ago, remember, when his two-run home run in the 13th inning against the A’s brought his team back from four runs down in a remarkable comeback.
And then three days ago the Yankees dug out of a 5-1 hole late in the game in Toronto, when a loss would have meant falling out of first place.
Still, did you really see this one coming? The Yankees were 0-58 when trailing after eight innings, which seems impossible for a team with their power up and down the lineup.
But suddenly they seem capable of the late-inning magic that has belonged mostly to the surprise teams, the A’s and the Orioles, this season.
Before Tuesday night’s game, in fact, Robinson Cano was talking about what a lift Sunday’s comeback win in Toronto had provided the ballclub, and how he felt it was propelling the Yankees toward the postseason.
“When you pull out a game like that,” Cano said, “when we knew we could have fallen out of first place, it says a lot about you as a team. This is the time when you have to play like that.
“It’s what you’ve gotta do. This game is about fight, and we’re showing we can fight.”
Cano has been leading the way, of course, and that was an issue on this night as well. Had the Yankees lost, in fact, Joe Girardi would have been roundly second-guessed for hitting Mark Teixeira in the clean-up spot, pushing Cano, the hottest hitter on the planet, to fifth.
Teixeira is just back from that calf injury, of course, and as it turned out, he killed the Yankees on this night, grounding into two double plays, popping up with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, and stranding a total of nine baserunners while going 0-for-6.
For a long time it appeared those failures had doomed the Yankees to defeat, and it probably would have been different had Cano batted cleanup. He was 18-for-29 coming into the game, and added two more hits, both leading off innings after Teixeira had killed rallies.
But in the end, Ibanez saved Girardi and everyone else from the most tension-filled night imaginable on Wednesday. And while the Red Sox at least showed a pulse after their no-show on Monday, it’s practically impossible to see how the Yankees, with all this momentum, could lose the finale, especially with Daisuke Matsuzaka and his 7.68 ERA on the mound for Boston.
Yes, everything changed when Ibanez’s ninth-inning lightning, the rarest of occurrences this season, struck for the Yankees.
Good thing Cashman signed the right guy.
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