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The Most Clutch Playoff Performance

  • Writer: Ryan
    Ryan
  • Mar 5, 2022
  • 6 min read

Updated: Mar 16, 2022







I want to take you back to a simpler time, back to the year I fell in love with baseball. 2012 seems just like yesterday but we’re coming up to the 10 year anniversary of the game which I believe exhibits the greatest individual effort made by a hitter ever. Raúl Ibañez almost single handedly willed the Yankees to win a game late one October night.


2012 was one of the years which solidified the belief that the AL East may have been the toughest division in the entire sport. The last-place Boston Red Sox, while talented, were steered right into the ground by the future politician and former disguise mastermind Bobby Valentine. This is despite having A-Gon, Pedroia, Ellsbury, Ortiz, and Jon Lester all near or in their prime. The 4th place Jays had a dangerous offense but a lack of pitching hamstrung any playoff aspirations. The three remaining teams won at least 90 games, with the 90-win Rays missing out on the playoffs, something Rob Manfred would physically cringe at nowadays. The wild-card Orioles were riding the backs of their stars, with Adam Jones, Chris Davis, Matt Wieters, and Nick Markakis bringing them a wild card victory over the Rangers, buying them a date with the division leading New York Yankees.

These Yankees were the Evil Empire of old, shelling out over $197 million, with the Phillies committing the second highest payroll at $174 million. They were old as well, with age- over-30 vets like Teixeira, Jeter, A-Rod, Granderson, Eric Chavez, Ichiro, Sabathia, and Andy Pettitte forming the core of the team. Powering their way to 95 regular season wins they met Baltimore in the division series, after splitting the regular season with them 9-9. After jumping out to a 1-0 series lead thanks in large part to an 8 inning gem by CC Sabathia, Baltimore responded, evening up the ALDS. Jim Johnson nailed it down with a 1-2-3 inning, pitching for the second night in a row. This was all setting up for a pivotal game 3 that would likely decide who would advance.


Game 3 was almost a must-win for Baltimore, as a Yankees win would ensure another start for the dominant CC Sabathia. Whose postseason heroics had already been well chronicled by this point, having won the 2009 ALCS MVP just three years prior. With the Yankees throwing Hiroki Kuroda, the Orioles turned to 28 year-old rookie Miguel Gonzalez, owner of just 15 Major League starts. Baltimore opened the scoring in the third inning with a Ryan Flaherty homer.



The lead didn’t last long however, as following a Russell Martin double, Mr. November tripled over the head of Adam Jones in center field, take that defensive metrics. Although he was left stranded after an Ichiro flyout. Manny Machado, who had turned 20 years old just a few months before, smacked a hanging slider over the left-center field wall, giving the Orioles the lead and getting him one step closer to celebrating with non-alcoholic champagne.





Both starters then settled down, with Gonzalez pitching through the seventh before Buck Showalter turned to the pen to bring in O’Day (this is clearly pre-Britton incident). Kuroda however, pitched into the ninth inning before finally being relieved for Boone Logan in LOOGY appearance, only in to face the grizzled vet Jim Thome. Logan and his successor, Rafael Soriano, both got their jobs done, sending the game into the bottom of the ninth, Baltimore leading by the slimmest of margins.

Ichiro Suzuki lined out to begin the ninth and due up next was the highest paid player in baseball. Alex Rodriguez has certainly been a figure of controversy throughout his career although the numbers on the field have always been there, posting an OPS north of .800 the previous 16 seasons going into 2012. Regardless, Girardi’s trust in Alex was minimal, with Rodriguez batting under .200 without an extra-base hit in the entire 2012 playoffs. This coupled with the fact the man on the mound may have been the most dominant closer in baseball forced Girardi to look down the bench for options. Jim Johnson had allowed only 3 home runs in nearly 70 innings and had just closed his first of back-to-back seasons of 50+ saves, a feat that only Eric Gagne has equalled. Johnson achieved this by throwing a bat-devouring sinker that traded in velocity for added movement, making it extremely difficult to elevate.


Just two outs from elimination, Joe Girardi called Raúl Ibañez’s card, and the 40 year-old wily journeyman sauntered up to the plate, looking more like the fourth chipmunk than a major league ballplayer. Ibañez had previously been with the 2009 Phillies when they lost to the Yankees in the Fall Classic, although that was through no fault of his own, slashing .304/.333/.609 in a losing effort. The stage was set and Raúl did not disappoint.





I don’t know if Alex Rodriguez was already starting his character rehabilitation program or he was just genuinely that excited for his teammate but either way this play made even A-Rod look like he enjoyed the game of baseball. Raúl had coaxed a flame of hope for the Bronx, out of the blue. The momentum wasn’t carried on by his teammates, and so extra innings were needed. This is where both team’s greatest strengths were shown off, the bullpens. With Rafael Soriano and David Robertson dealing for the Yankees, they were able to keep Baltimore’s potent offense slumbering. However, they were dealing with a Mariano Rivera-sized hole in their pen; he hadn’t pitched since the month of April after tearing his ACL shagging balls during batting practice. This urgency was twofold, as the O’s had a deep pen of guys all able to go multiple innings. After they squeezed a second frame out of Jim Johnson, they turned to the young lefty they had drafted 4th overall in 2008, Brian Matusz. With other solid arms like Pedro Strop, Luis Ayala, and Tommy Hunter waiting in the wings, the element of time was on their side.


After one clean inning from Matusz, they sent him back out there to face Ibañez. Since Rodriguez was the DH for that night, Raúl had yet to step back onto the field ever since tying the game back in the ninth. It was here, in the bottom of the twelfth inning that he ascended from being the hero of the game, to being immortal.





No one in the stadium could believe it. Raúl Ibañez sat on the bench for nine innings yet when he was called upon his veins flowed with pure ice. After taking the first pitch he saw, he had delivered monumental shots on the next two pitches thrown to him. Baseball Reference houses a stat called cWPA which puts a percentage on how much a play increases a team’s chances at winning the World Series. The walk-off homer boosted the Yankees by about 4.5%, the ninth inning blast upped their chances by even more, up 5.8%. This despite the fact that it was only Game 3 of the Division Series. In fact, only one other play the rest of that postseason would help a team’s chances more. The World Series didn’t even match that, with the Giants handily beating the Tigers in a clean sweep, with Pablo Sandoval’s third inning homer ringing in at 4.2%.


To the surprise of no one at all, the only man who can equal Raúl Ibañez is, Raúl Ibañez? In game 1 of the ALCS he was sent up to face another one of the American League’s most dominant closers, Papa Grande himself José Valverde. Down by 2, with 2 outs in the ninth inning, Ibañez hit a 2 run homer, cementing him as one of the most clutch postseason performers of all time.





Although this helped the Yankees’ chances by a robust 7.7%, it came in a losing effort, both in the game and the series. Ibañez would parlay his success into a one-year contract with the Mariners, then briefly playing for the Angels and Royals before fading into oblivion. However, he will forever stand out to me as one of the most clutch hitters in the history of baseball, and part of why I fell in love with this game. So thank you Raúl.



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