Retiring Teixeira hopes walk-off slam is his 'last home run'

Mark Teixeira couldn't have written a better script for the end of his career if he'd tried.

The New York Yankees first baseman, who will retire after Sunday's season finale, smacked a walk-off grand slam on Wednesday night to give his team an improbable and slightly awkward win over the rival Boston Red Sox. Although there's still four games left in his career, the 36-year-old knows this fairy-tale ending will be hard to top.

"I hope that's the last home run I hit," an elated Teixeira said in a postgame television interview, according to John Harper of the New York Daily News.

Teixeira's been thinking about his career winding down and the milestones that are coming with it during the beginning of his final week. On Monday night he hit a game-tying homer against the Blue Jays and flipped his bat, explaining to reporters later that he knew "it could be the last home run I hit. So why not bat flip on it?"

There were no bat-flip theatrics on Wednesday, though, because the five-time Gold Glove winner thought the wind was going to keep it in the yard.

"I would have looked pretty bad if I flipped the bat and it didn't go out," Teixeira said. "I'll leave the bat flips to the rest of the league after this."

As he heads into his final weekend, Teixeira will likely be given some more at-bats to try and pad his totals. While he won't be upset if he happens to hit home run No. 410, he'd rather his career total finish at 409 thanks to that perfect leave-on-a-high-note moment.

"I'll still be trying to hit a home run (the next four games)," Teixeira said. "But I'll be happy with some line-drive doubles.

"You don't want a wall-scraper in an 8-0 game to be your last one. You want it to be a grand slam against the Red Sox. That's as good as it gets right there."