BALTIMORE (AP) – Gary Sheffield did everything in his power to keep the Yankees alone atop the AL East.

It wasn’t enough to overcome a dreadful pitching performance by Mike Mussina and the New York bullpen.

Sheffield hit two homers and drove in six runs, but the Baltimore Orioles ended a nine-game losing streak with a 17-9 victory Tuesday night in an ugly game that lasted 4 hours, 16 minutes.

New York’s third loss in 16 games, combined with Boston’s split of a day-night doubleheader with Toronto, left the Yankees and Red Sox tied atop the division. Both teams have five games left, including a three-game series at Fenway Park to close the regular season.

The Red Sox and Yankees are also tied at 92-65 with Cleveland, which leads the wild-card standings.

The Yankees trailed 5-1 before Sheffield hit a two-run homer in the third inning. He put New York ahead with his 11th career grand slam, a shot to left in the fourth that made it 7-5.

But the Yankees’ bullpen couldn’t hold the lead.

An RBI single by Miguel Tejada and Jay Gibbons’ two-run homer off Al Leiter (4-5) in the fourth put Baltimore back in front, and the Orioles scored five runs off three relievers in the fifth to make it 13-7.

Javy Lopez led off with his 13th homer, and first since Aug. 25. After a walk and two singles loaded the bases, a passed ball let in a run and Felix Rodriguez issued two straight walks to force in a run. Wayne Franklin then walked in a run and gave up a sacrifice fly to B.J. Surhoff.

New York scored unearned runs in the seventh and eighth, but the Orioles scored four in the eighth off Tanyon Sturtze, who yielded an RBI double to Luis Matos and a three-run homer to Melvin Mora.

Mora drove in five runs and scored four, Gibbons went 3-for-4 with a walk and four RBIs, and rookie Bernie Castro had three hits and scored four runs to help the Orioles end their longest skid of the season.

It was the first time since Aug. 5 – and only the second time since June 4 – that Baltimore reached double figures in runs.

Aaron Rakers (1-0) pitched 2 1-3 scoreless innings to earn his first major league win.

Sheffield’s two homers gave him 33 for the year, and in the seventh he hit a shot to the left-field wall that was caught by a leaping David Newhan.

Derek Jeter hit his 18th homer for New York, and Bernie Williams got two singles to pass Joe DiMaggio for fourth place on the Yankees’ career hit list. With 2,215 hits, Williams trails only Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle.

Making his second start since missing three weeks with an elbow injury, Mussina gave up five runs and seven hits in 1 2-3 innings. It was his shortest outing since July 1995, when he got only two outs while pitching for Baltimore against Kansas City.

Jeter got the Yankees started by hitting Bruce Chen’s second pitch over the center-field wall, his fifth leadoff homer of the season and 17th of his career.

The Orioles answered with two runs in the bottom half. After Castro doubled and went to third on a single by Tejada, Gibbons doubled in a run and Surhoff hit a run-scoring groundout.

Baltimore chased Mussina during a three-run second that made it 5-1. After Mora hit a two-run double and Tejada followed with an RBI single, a single by Gibbons ended Mussina’s night after 50 pitches.

Notes: The Orioles had lost seven straight to the Yankees. … New York needs one homer to match the fourth-highest total in franchise history (223). … Sheffield is 10-for-24 with 10 homers and 14 RBIs lifetime against Chen. … It was the most runs New York scored in a loss since an 11-10 defeat in Boston on July 24, 2004.

AP-ES-09-27-05 2329EDT