As the bottom of the ninth inning approached, with the Yankees down to their final few desperate outs, Raul Ibanez was told that he would be batting second in the inning as a pinch hitter. But he didn't fully comprehend what that meant, because he didn't know whom he would be replacing.
So as he was preparing to hit, he asked teammate Eduardo Nunez to tell him who had been due up second in the inning, and Nunez informed him. Incredibly, it was Alex Rodriguez, one of the greatest sluggers in the history of the game, with 647 home runs to his name, but mired in a protracted and agonizing slump.
"Alex is one of the best hitters of all time and still is one of the greatest players in the history of the game," Ibanez said. "So for a minute I just thought something was going on. I didn't know what was happening. And then I tried to put it behind me and get a good pitch to hit."
Ibanez, a 40-year-old outfielder who was a teammate of Rodriguez's on the Class A Appleton Foxes in 1994, got more than one pitch to hit. To be precise, he got two.
With one out in the ninth inning, Ibanez hit a game-tying home run off closer Jim Johnson, and three innings later he finished what he started, sending a pitch from the left-handed reliever Brian Matusz screaming into the right-field stands and Yankee lore.
The second home run, made possible by the first, gave the Yankees a 3-2 victory in 12 innings over the stunned Baltimore Orioles and left the Yankees just one win away from clinching the best-of-five division series. Game 4 is scheduled for Thursday night.
It was not Ibanez's first moment like this for the Yankees. He was already a hero to Yankee fans for his star turn on Oct. 2 when he hit a game-tying, pinch-hit, two-run homer in the ninth inning against the Red Sox, and then knocked in the winning run in the 12th.
Ibanez also hit a game-tying pinch hit home run against the Athletics on Sept. 22.
This one, though, carried the whiff of postseason magic.
He became the first player to hit two home runs in the ninth inning or later of a postseason game.
"He just made himself a legend in Yankee eyes," Nick Swisher said.
On the crack of the bat in the 12th inning, the Yankees poured out of the dugout to celebrate with Ibanez at home plate as Yankee Stadium shook from the reaction of the overjoyed crowd.
Russell Martin called it the highlight of his career.
"Mine, too," said Eric Chavez, the 15-year veteran third baseman, "without a doubt. There's not even a close second."
In the ninth inning Rodriguez first watched glumly from the dugout railing as the Yankees were on the verge of what looked like a season-defining loss. But when he saw Ibanez take a 1-0 fastball from Johnson and drive it into the stands in right field, he thrust his arms in the air in jubilation and began jumping up and down with his teammates.
Rodriguez admitted that he didn't know how he might have handled the situation 10 years ago, but on Wednesday he was delighted with the outcome.
"Raul is an old Miami buddy of mine," Rodriguez said. "I was really proud of him. That was an amazing performance. It couldn't happen to a better guy."
The decision to pinch hit for Rodriguez was the boldest of the season for Yankees Manager Joe Girardi, and probably of his career. Before the game he had expressed confidence in his slumping slugger leaving him in the No. 3 position in the batting order, despite a growing clamor to drop him down.
Rodriguez had gone 1 for 9 in the first two games of the series and struck out five times. Then, with the entire Yankee lineup struggling to produce runs Wednesday, he went 0 for 3 with two more strikeouts Wednesday.
The Orioles were leading, 2-1, after eight innings on the strength of solo home runs by Ryan Flaherty and Manny Machado, and Girardi decided it was finally time to make a move even more dramatic than dropping Rodriguez in the batting order. With Johnson, the tough right-handed closer, on the mound, Girardi went with what he called "a gut feeling," and summoned the left-handed Ibanez to replace Rodriguez.
"I just went up to him and said you're scuffling a little bit right now," Girardi said of his conversation with Rodriguez. "We've got a low-ball hitter and we've got a shorter porch in right field than left field, obviously. Raul has been a good pinch-hitter for us, and I'm just going to take a shot."
Girardi would not commit to putting Rodriguez back in the No. 3 spot for Game 4.
"Let's just see what I put up tomorrow," Girardi said. "Let me sleep on this one."
The Yankees may be without Derek Jeter, though. He fouled a ball off his left foot in the third inning and was removed in the eighth after his last, hobbling at-bat and replaced by Jayson Nix. Jeter said he would play, but Girardi said he would have to check on him first.
And after he does, he'll make another gut decision.
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