BALTIMORE - The New York Yankees took advantage of 14 walks, then capped their latest comeback victory with a couple of strolls around the bases.
Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui hit consecutive homers in the ninth inning, and the Yankees rallied from a four-run deficit to beat the Orioles 9-7 Sunday.
New York trailed 6-2 in the fifth before escaping with its seventh win in eight games. The Yankees took two of three from the Orioles to capture the season series 14-5 and move a season-high 37 games over .500.
"It was an ugly baseball game," Sheffield said, "but those are the kind of games you want to win because it lifts your ballclub and it takes the wind out of the other club."
New York lengthened its East lead to 31/2 games over Boston.
New York rallied from four runs or more to win for the club-record ninth time this season, the most four-run comebacks since Colorado had 10 in 2001, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
The Yankees, who did not stage a rally of that nature last season, won despite stranding 17 and going 0-for-5 with the bases loaded.
"I think with this lineup, you never really feel like you're completely out of it," said John Olerud, who walked twice. "It's a good feeling."
New York had not walked 14 times in a game since May 14, 1980, against Kansas City.
"You know they're going to do enough hitting, so any time you help a team like that with a bunch of walks it's not going to lead to anything good," said Baltimore's Larry Bigbie, who went 4-for-4.
"You can't do that against any team," Orioles manager Lee Mazzilli said.
With the score tied at 7, Sheffield hit his 34th home run of the season leading off the ninth against Jorge Julio. Four pitches later, Matsui sent a drive far over the centerfield wall.
MARINERS 2, RED SOX 0: Gil Meche pitched a five-hitter for his second career shutout and Raul Ibanez hit a two-run homer to lead host Seattle.
Boston, shut out for the third time this season, has a five-game lead over Anaheim in the wild-card race.
The Mariners' Ichiro Suzuki went 2-for-4 with singles in the first and ninth, boosting his total to 231 hits this season. With 20 games left, Ichiro is batting .374 and needs 27 hits to break the 84-year-old record of 257 by George Sisler of the St. Louis Browns.
A'S 1, INDIANS 0: Barry Zito struck out 10 for the first time in more than a year and Erubiel Durazo hit his career-high 22nd home run as host Oakland maintained its two-game West lead over the Angels.
Zito had not reached double digits in strikeouts since fanning 10 at Minnesota on May 27, 2003. He had struck out nine twice this season.
ANGELS 11, WHITE SOX 0: Bartolo Colon pitched seven sharp innings and Garret Anderson drove in three for host Anaheim. Coming off a 13-6 loss, the Angels staked Colon to a 7-0 lead by the third and took two of three from Chicago. Colon has won 10 of his past 13 decisions.
TWINS 8, TIGERS 5: Terry Tiffee, Torii Hunter and Cristian Guzman homered to lead visiting Minnesota to its fifth straight win. J.C. Romero got two outs in the ninth before pinch-hitter Ivan Rodriguez singled in a run to end Romero's Twins-record scoreless streak at 362/3 innings since June 11 against Philadelphia.
RANGERS 7, BLUE JAYS 6: Mark Teixeira homered twice, including a two-run shot in the eighth that sent host Texas to a three-game sweep. Francisco Cordero made Teixeira's second shot stand up, striking out three in the ninth for his team-record 44th save.
