In his final game in the Bronx, Derek Jeter gave New York Yankees fans one final moment they’ll always remember.
With one out and a baserunner on second in the bottom of the ninth, The Captain lined a walk-off single to right field to give the Yankees a 6-5 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. The 14-time All-Star was mobbed by teammates after he rounded first base as a sellout crowd of 48,613 fans went into a frenzy.
“I want to thank everyone here. I’ve said it time and time again. Everybody is chanting ‘Thank you, Derek.’ And I’m thinking to myself, ‘For what?’ I’m just trying to do my job. Thank you guys,” an uncharacteristically emotional Jeter said after the game. “If I’m going to be honest with you, these last few weeks have gotten tougher and tougher. I’ve told you members of the media I didn’t want to talk about it because I try not to think about it. But it was very, very difficult. But it was all worth while.”
Jeter, whose name was chanted by the home crowd seemingly throughout the entire game, drove in two RBIs earlier as well. The 40-year-old put his team on the board when he launched a double to left field with his first at-bat of the game, then scored to tie it at 2-2. In the seventh frame, Jeter drove in two more runs (only one earned) after O’s shortstop J.J. Hardy made a throwing error on a softly hit ground ball.
After hugging his current and former teammates, along with his former manager Joe Torre, Jeter walked toward the middle of the diamond to thank the Yankees fans one last time. Even the Orioles players stayed in the dugout and applauded him.
Almost immediately after the dramatic finish, several players throughout Major League Baseball were quick to honor Jeter on Twitter.
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