One.

Ibanez, Yankees walk-off the Red Sox in twelve



I was debating about having the title of this post being something to do with tonight's hero Raul Ibanez but opted to go with the more important fact. The Yankees magic number to clinch their division stands at one game. One. If they win tomorrow OR if the Orioles lose tomorrow, the Yankees automatically win the American League East and if they win they have a great shot of the best record in the American League. If the Yankees were going to lose this game, it would have been a heart-breaker because they had chance after chance to grab a lead against Jon Lester. The wrong hitter was at the plate both of those times. Teixeira hit some bad luck by hitting into two straight double plays with runners on first and third with one out. I don't blame Teixeira because he has not been in a game in a long time before last night. Also, he did not want to re-injure his calf by running hard to first in the first inning. However, the Yankees would get one run back on an Eduardo Nunez RBI infield single when Granderson reached on an infield single and advanced to second on an error. Granderson then wasted no time and stole third to allow Nunez to drive him in.

Rafael Soriano gave up a crushing blow in the ninth when James Loney hit a ball into the second deck of the right field seats to add to a Boston lead. However, Raul Ibanez came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth as the tying run and blasted a two-run homer into the short porch. Ibanez has meant so much to this team and keeps getting big hits. Ten of his nineteen home runs this season have come in the sixth inning or later. Also, Ibanez pinch hit for Nunez in the ninth, meaning he had no time to adjust to game atmosphere as he was entering his first at-bat in the ninth inning with all the pressure on him. The Yankees went on to load the bases and did not get the winning run in until the twelfth when Ibanez came up again to face a tough lefty in Andrew Miller and hit a ground ball to the opposite field to score Cervelli from second. Cervelli set the tone in the inning by earning a two-out walk against Miller in his first big league plate appearance of the year.

The Yankees now control their own destiny and the odds are in their favor tomorrow night in terms of winning their division. They need a Baltimore loss or a Yankee win. Hiroki Kuroda will start game 162 in hopes of helping the Yankees clinch their division in the final regular season game of the year.

Wow, what a game tonight...!