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 Baltimore Orioles, 9-7, Sunday.

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

The Yankees (90-53) took two of three from the Orioles to capture the season series 14-5 and move a season-high 37 games over .500.

“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,” Sheffield said.

New York lengthened its lead in the AL East to 31/2 games over Boston, which lost to Seattle, 2-0.

It was the club-record ninth time this season that New York rallied from a deficit of four runs or more to win. It’s the most four-run comebacks in the majors since Colorado had 10 in 2001.

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.

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 anytime 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.

With the score 7-all, Sheffield hit his 34th home run of the season leading off the ninth against reliever Jorge Julio (2-5).

David Newhan had three RBIs for the Orioles, who used 10 pitchers, a major league record for a nine-inning game.

Angels 11, White Sox 0

Anaheim, Calif. — Bartolo Colon is beginning to earn every penny of his $51 million contract.

Colon (15-11) pitched seven sharp innings to lead Anaheim. It was his 10th win in 13 decisions after a 5-8 start in his first season with the Angels.

The stocky right-hander, who signed a four-year deal with Anaheim as a free agent last winter after spending 2003 with the White Sox, said his turnaround had been mainly a matter of mechanics.

“I made a change to pitch from the first-base side of the mound rather than the middle,” Colon said after holding his former teammates to six hits.

Colon kept the shutout intact when he came off the mound to field Timo Perez’s bunt and tagged Joe Crede out at the plate in the third inning.

Kevin Gregg and Scott Dunn each pitched a perfect inning to finish Anaheim’s 10th shutout.

Mariners 2, Red Sox 0

Seattle — Gil Meche (5-6) pitched a five-hitter for his second career shutout, and former Kansas City Royal Raul Ibanez hit a two-run homer in the sixth off Derek Lowe (14-11).

Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki went 2-for-4 with singles in the first and eighth, boosting his total to 231 hits. He has 20 games left to reach the 84-year-old major-league record of 257, set by St. Louis’ George Sisler.

Rangers 7, Blue Jays 6

Arlington, Texas — Mark Teixeira homered twice, including a go-ahead, two-run shot drive in the eighth off Justin Speier (3-7) as Texas completed a three-game sweep.

Doug Brocail (3-1), the fifth Texas pitcher, faced only one hitter and got the win with a strikeout-caught-stealing double play to end the eighth.

Francisco Cordero struck out three batters in the ninth for his team-record 44th save.

Twins 8, Tigers 5

Detroit — Terry Tiffee, Torii Hunter and Cristian Guzman homered as Minnesota (82-60) won its fifth straight game and ensured its fourth consecutive winning season.

Terry Mulholland (5-8) allowed four runs and nine hits in 62/3 innings, and Joe Nathan recorded one out for his 42nd save.

Athletics 1, Indians 0

Oakland, Calif. — Barry Zito (11-10) struck out 10 for the first time since May 27 last year at Minnesota, and Erubiel Durazo hit his career-high 22nd homer, a second-inning drive off Jake Westbrook (12-8)

Chris Hammond, Chad Bradford and Octavio Dotel completed the five-hitter, with Dotel getting his 20th save when he threw a called third strike past Coco Crisp.