Andy Ibañez puts Tigers into Division Series
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José de Jesus Ortiz, Founder & Editor in Chief
- October 2, 2024
Cuban Andy Ibañez drilled shot too good to dream about
HOUSTON – Soon after he helped the Tigers eliminate the Astros, Andy Ibañez rushed into the visitors’ clubhouse at Minute Maid Park on Wednesday afternoon. Ten years after defecting from Cuba, he wanted to call the folks who truly appreciated how difficult his road had been.
Ibañez grabbed his phone from his locker stall and called his parents, Lazaro and Mayra, who didn’t make the trip from Miami for the American League Wild Card.
Lazaro and Mayra Ibañez watched their son’s heroics on television. Andy was adamant that they were with him, however, as he hit a pinch, three-run double to help the Tigers beat the Astros 5-2 to reach the AL Division Series.
Dad on his mind
“They deserve this moment,” Ibañez said of his parents. “I have the ball there (in the clubhouse), and my dad is the one who deserves it. He instilled baseball in me since I was a kid, and I think this moment was for him.”
Down 2-1 in the top of the eighth inning, the Tigers rallied in the eighth to complete the sweep in the best-of-three Wild Card. Kerry Carpenter started the rally against Ryan Pressly with a one-out single. Matt Vierling followed with a single to center. With Riley Greene at the plate, Pressly uncorked a wild pitch to let the tying run score.
Greene eventually struck out, but Pressly walked Keith Colt. Astros manager Joe Espada then called on closer Josh Hader to relieve Pressly. Spencer Torkelson drew a walk off Hader to load the bases, prompting A.J. Hinch to send Ibáñez to the plate.
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“His story is unbelievable because he’s a guy that we got and tried to work with in multiple positions,” Hinch said of Ibáñez. “We really saw that he had a strength against lefthanded pitching, so we use him primarily against lefthanded pitching.
“And he’s our guy we go to with the game on the line. He comes through a lot. This is not the first time he’s come up with a big hit, but that one was well timed.”
Andy Ibañez’s biggest double
Ibañez definitely capitalized. He hit a double down the left field line to give the Tigers the lead for good. With lefthanded starter Yusei Kikuchi and lefthanded relievers Caleb Ferguson, Bryan King and Hader available, Hinch was waiting to counter with the righthanded-hitting Ibañez.
Hinch told Ibáñez that he “would get one of the biggest at-bats of the game” because the Astros were going to attack the Tigers’ lefthanded hitters with Kikuchi, Ferguson, King or Hader.
“It’s not ideal when it’s Hader just because he’s so talented,” Hinch said. “But Andy had been waiting for that at-bat for nine innings.”
Ibáñez, 31, signed with the Texas Rangers as an amateur free agent on July 7, 2015. He made his debut in the majors on May 4 2021, but he played in only 116 games over two seasons before the Rangers gave up on him.
The Tigers claimed Ibáñez off waivers from the Rangers on Nov. 10, 2022. He drove in 32 runs over 99 games this year with only nine doubles, one triple and five home runs.
Long road from Cuba
“Since I left Cuba, I never thought of a moment like the one I’m living,” he said. “If I said yes, I’d be lying. I just wanted to work and get to the big leagues. Thank God I have a pair of years here. This has been the best double of my life. It’s been this one.”
Afterward, Ibañez thought of the countless hours his father Lazaro spent teaching him how to play baseball. Ibáñez was 4 years old when Lazaro began teaching him how to hit and field in front of their home in Barrio Santa Fe in La Isla De La Juventud, a tiny island below the southern part of Cuba.
“My dad, like all Cubans, loved baseball,” he said. “But he could never play. Since I was a little in front of my house, he was the one who taught me how to field, to hit. And you have to give him all the credit.”
Ibañez finally got the signature moment that was so glorious he never even dreamed that it would be possible.
José de Jesus Ortiz
Founder & Editor in Chief
Award-winning writer José de Jesus Ortiz, a former lead sports columnist at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has covered Major League Baseball since 1997 in Los Angeles, St. Petersburg, New York and Houston. He was the first Latino to serve as president of the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
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