After a 20 year career spanning five World Series championships, Derek Jeter played his last game inside Yankee Stadium Thursday night. Not even the future Hall-of-Famer could have envisioned such a memorable ending.
First, after receiving a standing ovation approaching the plate in his first at-bat against Kevin Gausman and the Baltimore Orioles, Jeter lined a pitch to left-center, missing a home run by just a few feet for an RBI double, scoring Brett Gardner. Yankee Stadium went nuts.
But Jeter wasn’t done yet.
In the bottom of the 9th, score tied 5-5, Jeets slapped a pitch through the hole into right field for an RBI single. That’s right, Jeter’s last game at Yankee Stadium ended with his own game-winning walk-off hit.
A crowd of 48,613 exploded. All-Star teammates — and those Jeter considers as “brothers” — Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Tino Martinez, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada and even his former manager, Joe Torre, were all there on the field following the game-winning hit to say their goodbyes in person. It was emotional.
“I’ve done a pretty good job controlling my emotions,” Jeter says. “I try to hide them. I try to trick myself into not feeling those particular emotions.
“Today, I wasn’t able to do it.”
Related: Derek Jeter’s All-Time Greatest Moments
Jeter finished the game 3-for-5 with 3 RBI.
Mr. Clutch slash Mr. November will finish his career with the 6th most hits all-time.
Josh Helmuth is the editor of CraveOnline Sports.
