Raul Ibanez and the New York Yankees are quite fond of their position - leaving the chasing to the Birds.
Ibanez tied it with a pinch-hit two-run homer in the ninth inning, then had an RBI single in the 12th, helping the Yankees remain a game up on Baltimore in the AL East with one game to go by beating the Boston Red Sox 4-3 on Tuesday night.
"We stuck together. We stayed after them, and we were able to pull it out," Ibanez said. "It's crunch time for us, and we all know that."
With a second comeback spurred by Ibanez in the last 10 days, the Yankees need a win or Orioles loss on the final day of the season to secure their 13th division title since 1996. The Orioles beat Tampa Bay 1-0 earlier.
If the teams end up even after today's games, they'll play a tiebreaker Thursday in Baltimore.
"If you win, you win the division. That's the bottom line," manager Joe Girardi said. "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."
The Yankees kept missing chances on a foggy, rainy night. They were 0-58 when trailing after eight innings this season before rallying in the ninth.
Curtis Granderson led off the ninth with a single off closer Andrew Bailey and Ibanez lined a shot to right field to make it 3-all.
Ibanez came up again with two outs in the 12th against Andrew Miller (3-2) following a walk to Francisco Cervelli in his first plate appearance of the year and a free pass to Granderson.
The 40-year-old first-year Yankee then hit a grounder out of the reach of shortstop Jose Iglesias and Cervelli flopped into home plate with a slide he said he couldn't explain.
"I must've thanked Ibanez 100 times," said Mark Teixeira, who was 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position. "Raul is my favourite 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 Yankees ran out to first base to mob Ibanez, who had a tying two-run homer against Oakland in the 13th inning on Sept. 22.
Derek Lowe (9-11) pitched two innings for the win.
Tying a season high with their seventh straight loss, the Red Sox dropped to 69-92, ensuring they will finish in last place in the East for the first time since 1992.
"We didn't start the season to finish fifth ... or fourth, or third, or second," manager Bobby Valentine said.
The Yankees had at least one hit in each of the first six innings before the top three in the batting order went out successively in the seventh against Junichi Tazawa.
After Ibanez's homer, they loaded the bases against Bailey in the ninth but Mark Melancon relieved and got Teixeira to pop up to an outfield playing in and Robinson Cano to ground out.
Ibanez has 19 homers this season, 10 of them tying the game or putting New York a lead.
Managing as if this were a playoff game, Girardi used much of his well-rested bullpen. He called on Rafael Soriano for the ninth, trailing 2-1, and the closer gave up a leadoff homer to James Loney, rankling many of the 41,564 who stayed through the rain.
He also pitched the 10th, walking one batter. night.
REDS 3, CARDINALS 1
ST. LOUIS - Mat Latos won his fourth straight decision to finish the regular season and Scott Rolen homered off Chris Carpenter, helping the Cincinnati Reds keep the St. Louis Cardinals' post-season plans on hold with a 3-1 victory.
The Cardinals' magic number for clinching the second NL wild card remained at one with a game to go, and they were left in the uncomfortable position of watching the Dodgers on television and rooting for a loss for the second straight night. Los Angeles, which began the day two games back with two remaining, played at home against the Giants later Tuesday.
