NEW YORK -- Derek Jeter's final season as a New York Yankee might have ended in disappointment, but his final game at Yankee Stadium ended the way he likes it -- with a victory.

And, better yet, with a victory that resulted directly from a classic Jeter moment -- an inside-out swing on a first pitch that was laced into right field, scoring pinch runner Antoan Richardson from second with the game winner. Hollywood could not have written a more satisfying script.

In his last game in pinstripes -- the Yankees will wear their road grays in Boston this weekend -- Jeter gave the crowd an early thrill with an RBI double off the wall and one last look at his flair for the dramatic when his routine grounder to short turned into two runs that gave the Yankees the lead.

But it was his walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth after David Robertson had blown a three-run lead by allowing two ninth-inning home runs that caused Yankee Stadium to explode the way it had when Jeter and Yankees teams from a previous era were winning championships seemingly every year.

Jeter was mobbed on the field after the game by current teammates as well as former ones, including Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Bernie Williams, Tino Martinez and former manager Joe Torre.

The only place where Jeter lost tonight was in a battle with his emotions. As the crowd chanted his name and gave him a thunderous, spontaneous standing ovation in the eighth inning -- prompting him to tip his cap around the ballpark -- the normally stoic Jeter was clearly struggling to maintain his composure.

But, of course, there was one more moment of drama for Jeter to endure -- Robertson's ninth-inning flameout that began with a gopher ball to Adam Jones that made it a one-run game with Nelson Cruz, the major league home run leader with 40, at the plate. Robertson got Cruz to chase a slider in the dirt for the second out but then surrendered a game-tying home run to ex-Yankee Steve Pearce to send the game into the bottom of the ninth.

Good things happen …: To great players. Jeter's second-to-last Yankee Stadium at-bat was all set up for a dramatic moment -- tie game, bases loaded, one out in the seventh. And even though Jeter did not hit the ball well -- topping a bouncer to shortstop -- J.J. Hardy rushed his throw and fired it into right field, allowing two unearned runs to score. The entire inning was no offensive explosion. They loaded the bases on a strikeout/wild pitch that allowed Stephen Drew to reach first, a walk to Ichiro Suzuki and a sacrifice bunt attempt by Jose Pirela that was thrown away by catcher Caleb Joseph and went into the scorebook as a base hit. Brett Gardner grounded into a force out at home before Jeter's grounder, and the Yankees' fifth run, also unearned, scored on Brian McCann's sacrifice fly to left.

Rising to the occasion: In his first at-bat, Jeter just missed a game-tying, two-run homer, lining a 3-1 pitch high off the left-field fence in front of the Orioles bullpen to score Gardner (leadoff single) from first. Jeter then advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored the tying run when ex-Yankee Kelly Johnson, stationed in short right, mishandled a hot grounder by McCann.

Fine farewell: If this was Hiroki Kuroda's last game as a Yankee -- he is a free agent after the season and no one in the organization seems to know if he, at 40 years old, will return next year -- it was one to remember. After allowing home runs to the first two batters he faced, Kuroda settled down to limit the dangerous Orioles to just one single over his final six innings, retiring the final 16 batters he faced. Kuroda went eight innings, allowed just three hits and two runs, walked none and struck out nine.

Roll call ruined: The crowd was in the process of performing its final pregame roll call for Jeter when leadoff hitter Nick Markakis teed off on a 1-2 pitch from Kuroda and deposited it deep into the right-field seats to give the O's a 1-0 lead.

Not again!: Four pitches later, it was Alejandro De Aza crushing a 1-2 pitch from Kuroda, this time to right-center, to make it a 2-0 game. It was the first time the Orioles had started a game with back-to-back home runs in more than a decade. And also, against the Yankees.

Derek Jitters: Jeter might have been a little nervous on his first chance in the field, picking Johnson's second-inning grounder cleanly but throwing wide of first and pulling Mark Teixeira off the bag for an error. But no harm was done when Kuroda retired the next two hitters, one of them a grounder to short that Jeter fielded flawlessly.

Tomorrow: The final three games of Jeter's wonderful career, and this woeful season, get underway in Boston. Chris Capuano (2-4, 4.67 ERA) pitches against right-hander Steven Wright (0-0, 3.38), first pitch at 7:10 p.m.