BALTIMORE – Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui hit consecutive homers in the ninth inning, and the Yankees took advantage of 14 walks in a 9-7 comeback victory over the Orioles yesterday.

The Yankees trailed 6-2 in the fifth inning before rallying for their 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 (90-53). The Yankees also moved 3 1 /2 games ahead of the Red Sox, who lost yesterday.

It was the club-record ninth time this season that Joe Torre’s charges rallied from a deficit of four runs or more. The Yankees, who did not have a comeback of that nature all last year, won despite stranding 17 runners and going 0-for-5 with the bases loaded. New York had not received as many as 14 walks in a game since 1980.

With the score 7-all, Sheffield hit his 34th home run of the season leading off the ninth against Jorge Julio (2-5). Four pitches later, Matsui sent a drive far over the center-field wall.

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

Larry Bigbie went 4-for-4 and David Newhan had three RBI for the Orioles, who used 10 pitchers, a major league record for a nine-inning game.

The Yankees batted around in the sixth and scored three runs off Dave Borkowski. In the seventh, Jason Grimsley issued three walks and threw two wild pitches. The lone hit against him a leadoff single by Kenny Lofton, who scored on a sacrifice fly by Sheffield.

It was the 30th time this year that the Yankees have batted around.