Yankees Increase Lead With Rally

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 at Baltimore.

New York trailed, 6-2, in the fifth inning before escaping with its seventh win in eight games.

“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 increased its lead in the AL East to 3 1/2 games over Boston.

It was the club-record ninth time this season that New York rallied from a deficit of four runs or more to win.

The Yankees, who did not stage a rally of that nature all last year, won despite stranding 17 runners and going 0 for 5 with the bases loaded.

Tom Gordon (7-4) got four outs and Mariano Rivera worked the ninth for his major-league leading 48th save in 51 chances.

Seattle 2, Boston 0 -- Gil Meche (5-6) pitched a five-hitter for the second shutout of his career and Raul Ibanez hit a two-run homer to lead the Mariners at Seattle.

Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki went two for four, boosting his total to 231 hits this season. With 20 games left, Suzuki is batting .374.

Oakland 1, Cleveland 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, leading the Athletics at Oakland.

Zito (11-10) gave up four hits in seven scoreless innings.

Texas 7, Toronto 6 -- Mark Teixeira homered twice, including a two-run shot in the eighth inning that sent the Rangers to a three-game sweep at Arlington, Texas.

Minnesota 8, Detroit 5 -- Terry Tiffee, Torii Hunter and Christian Guzman each hit homers to lead the visiting Twins to their fifth consecutive victory. Tiger pinch-hitter Ivan Rodriguez had a ninth-inning, run-scoring single that ended J.C. Romero’s team-record scoreless streak at 36 2/3 innings.

Tampa Bay 7, Kansas City 2 -- The Devil Rays’ Jorge Sosa (4-4) gave up five hits and no runs in seven innings at Kansas City, Mo., as he won for the first time in six starts.