Raul Ibanez smashed a homer in the ninth inning to keep the New York Yankees atop the AL East by one game, courtesy a 4-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox 4-3.
It was Ibanez whose homer in the 9th inning and an RBI single in the 12th inning that helped the Yankees maintain their lead in the AL East. They are one game above the Baltimore Orioles and have one more game to play.
In order to secure their 13th division title, the Yankees need a win in the final game or hope the Orioles lose their last game of the season. This would be the Yankees' 13th division title since 1996, if they can come out trumps. Baltimore, meanwhile, won their game against Tampa Bay 1-0 earlier.
Both teams will play a tiebreaker on Thursday if they end up even after their games on Wednesday.
The Associated Press quotes Ibanez as saying: "We stuck together. We stayed after them, and we were able to pull it out. I was trying not to do too much, and it found a hole."
"If you win, you win the division. That's the bottom line. And we have the chance to have the best record, and that's the bottom line and that's a good feeling that you can control that," Joe Girardi added.
Treating Tuesday's game as a playoff, manager Girardi used most of his well-rested players. Rafael Soriano was called for the ninth. Trailing 2-1, he gave up a leadoff homer to James Loney, much to the irritation of the 40,000 strong crowd who watched in the rain.
Ibanez the hero for the Yankees, hit a grounder that was out of reach of Jose Iglesias, the shortstop, and Cervelli flopping into home plate. Ibanez was mobbed by the Yanks at first base. The team doused him with a bucket of water while he was giving an interview after the game. On September 22, Ibanez had a 2-run tying homer in their game against the Oakland Athletics.
"It was really cold," Ibanez said of the cold shower. "My back was numb for a while but it felt good."
"I must've thanked Ibanez 100 times," Mark Teixeira added. "Raul is my favorite player right now. I guarantee I'm the happiest guy on the team because it could not have gone worse for me personally, but we won."
The Red Sox are languishing at the bottom of the table dropping to 69-92. For the first time since 1992, they will finish last in the AL East.
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