Jeter homers as final homestand begins with Yankees win

NEW YORK –

The taped introduction from Bob Sheppard played and Derek Jeter stepped in for the first at-bat of the last regular-season homestand of his Yankees life. Loud cheers filled the Bronx night.

The Yankees never really did get the hang of this hitting thing. They're mathematically breathing for the second wild card, but barely.

This last homestand is really about eight days of saying goodbye to Jeter and Jeter saying goodbye after 20 seasons in pinstripes before he finishes with a final series in Boston.

The retiring Captain delivered two hits in Thursday night's opener against Toronto, including a solo homer. The Yankees blew a two-run lead in the eighth, but they won it 3-2 on a walk-off error in the ninth.

"Any way you can win," Jeter said.

So the Yankees are five back of Oakland with 10 to play, and there's a crowd chasing with them.

"I'm trying not to think about it being the last homestand," Jeter said. "We still have a week left. We're trying to win games. I'm going to go out there and play hard like I've always done my entire career until we're out of games."

Jeter began the night in a 1-for-30 slide. Then he had an infield single and the homer and was robbed of a third hit in four at-bats, bringing him to .250.

"Obviously this year, up until this point, hasn't turned out how I would like it to," Jeter said. "But you've got to keep fighting."

The pinstriped uniform will come off for good next Thursday, barring rain or a comeback for the ages. The finale is scheduled for Sept. 28 at Fenway.

"I'm sure he's trying to soak this up as much as he can," Joe Girardi said. "It's really difficult to take the uniform off. … It's a big change of life for him."

Chris Young opened the ninth with a single off Aaron Sanchez. Antoan Richardson pinch-ran and quickly swiped second, then moved to third on a two-strike sacrifice by Brett Gardner. And Chase Headley hit a grounder that got past first baseman Adam Lind for the game-ending error, making a winner out of David Robertson.

"It's nice to catch a break," Headley said.

Shane Greene could have been the winner. He has been one of the good things to come out of this season. The 25-year-old rookie righty has allowed three runs or less in 11 of his 13 starts. This time, he gave up no runs and three hits in 6²/₃.

"I like to say I have a lot of confidence in myself, but when you first come up, it's like, I believe I belong, but do other people believe I belong?" Greene said. "I've been trying to prove it to myself and everybody else at the same time."

Shawn Kelley threw away his victory in the eighth, serving up a two-out single to Jose Reyes and a two-run shot to left by Jose Bautista — 2-2.

The Yankees had struggled against R.A. Dickey. But the knuckleballer finally cracked with two outs in the fifth, allowing an RBI double to Stephen Drew.

Jeter delivered the second run in the sixth, belting a shot into the left-field seats for his fourth homer and first since Aug. 1. It snapped a 158-at-bat streak without one and a 298-at-bat homerless stretch at home, dating to July of last year.

"With the dramatics," Headley said, "he's going to come through."