Yankees: 7 clutch playoff moments that deserve more praise

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6. Chase Headley’s Mad Dash Extends Yankees Rally, 2017 ALCS

Game 4 of the 2017 ALCS against Houston is still waiting to be dethroned as the best postseason game of the Baby Bomber era.

And while we’d eventually like to see a World Series trophy on the mantle that partially obscures this minor triumph, you have to admit it was … pretty damn exciting.

While your mind probably goes to the Aaron Judge double or Gary Sanchez oppo liner that opened up the floodgates, I’d like to direct you to a moment that largely goes unnoticed. Chase Headley could’ve run the Yankees out of the inning before it ever really started when he trudged to second base behind Todd Frazier’s sprint to third, bumbling every step of the way.

Miraculously, he made it safely, and that twist of fate is the only reason you’re reading about this game today.

Headley’s stumble put runners on second and third with nobody out, allowing Brett Gardner to knock in a run with a grounder, Judge to double, and the rest of the pandemonium to ensue. If he’d been a half-second slower in his recovery, we’d be talking about an all-time Yankee goat here.

But as it stands, since the Yankees lost the series, we don’t really talk about it much at all. And that’s not right, either.

5. Raul Ibañez Ties Up ALCS Game 1, 2012

Raul Ibañez did so much in the late innings for the Yankees in 2012 that sometimes his two-out, game-tying home run gets lost by the wayside. And that’s insane.

Seemingly always there with a second-deck shot exactly when it was most needed that season, the veteran DH had his final curtain call with two outs in the ninth inning of ALCS Game 1 against the Tigers.

Down 4-0 to start the inning with Jose Valverde on the mound, Ichiro had already wrapped an improbable two-run shot around the pole in right field. With Mark Teixeira on first and two outs, Ibañez — fresh off his two miracle shots that felled Baltimore in Game 3 of the DS — lofted one into deep right that just kept going.

To echo Ernie Johnson’s call from that O’s game: “He did it again.”

Unfortunately, we know why a ridiculous game-tying blast in the Championship Series has largely gone unnoticed. Without the game being tied, we probably would’ve never seen the catastrophic ankle injury that Derek Jeter suffered a few innings later.

It was a bone bruise waiting to become a fracture, and things would’ve spiraled there eventually. We’re not saying Jeter never would’ve succumbed to injury.

But, unfortunately, the two moments are inextricably linked, throwing a dark cloud on Ibañez’s herculean effort. Let’s not let that happen.

4. Andy Pettitte Ties Up WS Game 3 All By Himself

Down 3-0 to Cole Hamels early in Game 3 of the 2009 World Series (on the road), Andy Pettitte knew there was only one man who could get his team back in it: himself.

Following Alex Rodriguez’s aforementioned camera well home run that ushered in the Instant Replay era, Pettitte found himself at the plate with Nick Swisher on second and a one-run deficit. Against all odds, his little league (and Astros) instincts kicked in, and he stayed on the ball, looped it into center, and scored Swisher, who used a hideous slide to touch the plate safely.

For some reason, there isn’t a massive framed photograph of this moment hanging on the exterior door of every Yankee fans’ garage. Yes, this happened.

The Yankees went on to run away and hide in this one, no doubt buoyed by Pettitte’s smack and weird, puffy jacket (pitcher chic!).

New York took the pivotal third game 8-5, running the lead to 5-3 in that fifth inning when a Johnny Damon double scored a chugging Pettitte and Derek Jeter at the same time, ushering in one of the strangest images of the Core Four era. Did Jeter ever think he’d meet his favorite crafty lefty at home plate in the World Series?

Doubtful. Let’s give Pettitte the props he deserves for making it happen. Like many pivotal moments, this one was entirely unanticipated.

3. Orlando Hernandez Pushes the ’98 Indians Back

Another one of the great Yankees teams on the brink, and another heroic act to stem the tide.

This time, the silencing was done on the mound, as Orlando Hernandez took the first step in establishing himself as one of the quietest October dominators of his era.

When El Duque took the mound in Cleveland, he was entering quite possibly baseball’s most hostile environment down 2-1 in a series the 114-win Yankees could not stomach losing. The Cuban import strode to the mound in the same building in which the 1997 Yankees had let the ALDS slip away.

He was about to work in front of yet another in an endless line of sellouts at The Jake (remember that?). He was carrying the baggage of the Chuck Knoblauch Brain Launch down the first base line — and, oh yeah, the immense emotional turmoil that comes with fleeing for your life to play the game you love.

Calmly, coolly, and with a heart that beat steady, Hernandez tamed the Indians offense with a series of whispers. Seven innings, three hits, two walks, six strikeouts, not a single run.

The Yankees took this one 4-0 and ran with the series, scoring five and nine in the final two contests. From this point on, the ’98 Yankees didn’t take a single additional blemish in the postseason.

You can thank Hernandez’s ridiculous leg kick for blocking all semblance of impending disaster out of sight. He posted a 4.13 career regular season ERA and a 2.55 mark in 106 career postseason innings. Enough said, quietly.

2. David Cone Gets Mike Piazza, 2000 World Series

Midway through Game 4 of the 2000 World Series, Joe Torre didn’t ask if David Cone still had it. He didn’t worry about how long he could stretch his former ace, the man who was perfect just one year prior.

He simply wanted to know if Cone had enough in the tank to make one, final perfect pitch to cut a Yankees enemy down at the waist. Cone answered the bell.

Locked in a 3-2 game in the fifth inning of World Series Game 4, Torre ruthlessly took the ball from midseason acquisition Denny Neagle, one out short of the ability to earn a World Series victory, and handed it to Cone, whose stuff had shaken him over the past year, but whose self-confidence never wavered.

Torre’s faith in him never dipped, either. You’ve got to be a little crazy to manage in this city.

Cone finished that season with a 6.91 ERA, and even went to Boston the next season in an attempt to reclaim an ending on his own terms (it worked; Cone went 9-7, 4.31).

But ignore that mark. He entered the World Series with one job (the hardest, arguably, of anyone in the ballpark that night), and wrapped up the gig with a 0.00 mark. Doesn’t matter how many batters were involved.

He only needed one.

1. Paul O’Neill’s ’96 World Series Catch Ends Game 5

It’s important to note that Paul O’Neill was battling a hamstring injury during the team’s run to the 1996 title, but it’s also kind of … not important? After all, O’Neill was seemingly always battling something, and never let it affect his play one iota.

Healthy or not, the “get up and go” was always turned to the maximum for O’Neill, and of course the final out of a 1-0 World Series game on the road found his mitt — but only after a severely strenuous effort, even for a non-hobbled man.

With the tying run on third and the go-ahead man on first, Luis Polonia torched a liner into the gap that probably should’ve undone the Yanks’ miraculous 0-2 three-game comeback in Atlanta.

But then O’Neill lumbered into the picture. He sprinted, to the best of his ability. And he thwapped his glove in the air at the furthest point it could possibly travel to corral the baseball that would send New York on the happiest flight of their lives.

Two days later, O’Neill was rolling over the top of a championship dogpile, his hamstrings now a complete non-issue.

They’d given all they had to give, after all. You’ll never see a more clutch job of tracking a fly ball to completion.

Yankees: 3 Forgotten Moments of 2009 World Series Run

The New York Yankees won an incredible World Series in 2009, replete with memorable moments -- and a few you likely forgot.