The Yankees gave George Steinbrenner a wacky win for his 75th birthday. Jason Giambi had his first multi-homer game in two years, Bernie Williams hit a tiebreaking single in a seven-run eighth inning, and New York rallied past the Baltimore Orioles 13-8 yesterday after wasting a big lead.

Steinbrenner did not attend the 4-hour, 12-minute, 397-pitch marathon, the longest nine-inning game in the major leagues this season, but Yankees manager Joe Torre assumed the owner tuned in on television.

“I’m sure it wasn’t one he enjoyed watching. None of us did,” Torre said. “But the end of it was certainly something I’m sure put a smile on his face.”

Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matsui, and Giambi homered to help the Yankees take a 6-0 lead against Bruce Chen in the second inning.

But Baltimore, coming off its best first half since 1997, quieted a Fourth of July sellout crowd of 53,844 by going ahead 8-6 as Brian Roberts and Jay Gibbons homered, Rafael Palmeiro hit a tying single in a three-run seventh, and Luis Matos followed with a two-run double.

But after Todd Williams, Tim Byrdak, and Chris Ray combined for 5 2 /3 innings of shutout relief, the Yankees rallied against Steve Kline and B.J. Ryan (1-2) to win their third straight and send the Orioles to their 10th loss in 12 games.

“We came back the way we used to,” Bernie Williams said.”I think it’s a great sign of good things to come.”

New York completed its most dismal first half in a decade at 42-39. The Yankees were 33-39 at the midpoint of the strike-shortened 1995 season, then rallied for a wild-card berth.

Giambi didn’t think Steinbrenner would be smiling. “It’s a little early, I think, for that,” he said. “He wants a World Series ring, and so do we.”

Inserted into the rotation because of Carl Pavano’s sore shoulder, Tanyon Sturtze made his first start since August 11 and allowed four runs, three hits, and three walks in 3 2 /3 innings. The new middle relief crew of Scott Proctor, Wayne Franklin, and Jason Anderson gave up the lead, but Anderson (1-0) bounced back with a scoreless eighth to get his second major league win. Mariano Rivera pitched a flawless ninth, extending his scoreless streak to 23 innings.

Baltimore pitchers walked seven and hit three batters, while Yankee pitchers walked eight – two with the bases loaded – and hit one. New York wound up with two runners on second base at the same time in the eighth – Bubba Crosby was out when he tried to stretch a single while Giambi stopped at second.

Giambi made it 8-7 in the eighth with his second solo homer, the fourth Kline has allowed to a lefty this season.

“If I don’t pitch better, it’s going to be a rough year,” Kline said.

Giambi has seven homers this season and 101 with the Yankees. He had not homered twice since July 18, 2003, against Cleveland.

Alex Rodriguez walked on Ryan’s 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded to force in the tying run, and Bernie Williams flared a two-run single to right. Matsui followed with an RBI grounder, Giambi was hit by a pitch, and Crosby hit a run-scoring single off Gibbon’s glove in right.