Derek Jeter opens last Bronx game

— -- NEW YORK -- Derek Jeter's final game at Yankee Stadium could hardly have started any worse -- just eight pitches in, New York starter Hiroki Kuroda had given up two home runs -- but by the time the first inning ended, the momentarily hushed crowd was chanting Jeter's name again.

Virtually single-handedly, Jeter brought the Yankees back to even. He doubled off the wall in left-center -- barely missing a home run -- to drive in Brett Gardner for the first run. Jeter then scored when the next hitter, Brian McCann, hit a grounder that Baltimore Orioles second baseman Kelly Johnson couldn't handle, tying the game.

It was a jaw-dropping start to what is expected to be a memorable night at Yankee Stadium even though the home team has been eliminated from playoff contention for the second straight year.

The Yankees played a video tribute, in which fans testified to Jeter's greatness in taped messages, before the game, and the sellout crowd braved 61-degree and at times rainy weather to cheer the 40-year-old Yankees captain's every appearance on the field.

However, the night got off to a rocky start when, right in the middle of Jeter's final "roll call" from the Stadium crowd, the Orioles' Nick Markakis belted Kuroda's 1-2 pitch high into the right-field seats. Four pitches later, Alejandro De Aza followed with another solo home run, stunning the crowd into a dull murmur.

But after Gardner singled to start the bottom of the first, Jeter got the first of what is sure to be a standing ovation for every at-bat. He repaid the crowd by lining Kevin Gausman's 3-1 pitch high off the left-field wall in front of the visitors' bullpen, missing a home run by about 3 feet but driving in Gardner for the Yankees' first run. Jeter then advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on McCann's grounder that was booted by Johnson, a teammate of Jeter's for a brief time earlier this year, in short right field.

In his second at-bat, Jeter grounded into a forceout to end the second inning.

Jeter did commit a throwing error on his first chance in the field, a grounder by Johnson that he fielded cleanly but threw wide to first, pulling Mark Teixeira off the bag. But he fielded his next two chances flawlessly, including starting a 6-4-3 double play to end the third inning.

Other than the video presentation, there were no special pregame festivities since the Yankees had given Jeter a day Sept. 7. But the entire game is likely to be a celebration of Jeter as long as he remains in it.

Last season, manager Joe Girardi orchestrated a dramatic end to the career of closer Mariano Rivera, sending Jeter and Andy Pettitte, teammates of Rivera's on five championship teams, out to the mound to remove him from the game.

Girardi has not said what he will do to make Jeter's removal from this game memorable.

"I'm just going to kind of let it go," Girardi said. "Just let it go through and take its course. Just see what happens."