(Ticker) - The New York Yankees overcame a seven-run deficit, scoring eight in the second inning and five in the fourth en route to a 13-9 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

Ed Yarnall was roughed up in his first start of the year for New York, but Sidney Ponson and Jason Johnson failed to hold the 7-0 lead Baltimore built in the second inning.

Ponson walked four straight batters in the eight-run second, which Derek Jeter highlighted with a game-tying, three-run homer off Johnson. Paul O'Neill followed with a solo shot as the Yankees went ahead, 8-7.

"It's not the ideal situation, but it was only the second inning," said Jeter, whose team overcame a seven-run deficit for the first time in four years. "We'll always battle. I think we'll always have a chance."

New York, which had just four hits in the second inning and 10 in the game, scored five runs in the fourth on a two-run double by O'Neill and back-to-back homers by Bernie Williams and David Justice, his first as a Yankee.

The Orioles got within 13-9 in the seventh, but Scott Brosius started a double play for the major league record-tying fourth time in the game to prevent further damage.

The top five batters in New York's lineup scored two runs apiece, helping the Yankees win the three-hour, 53-minute rubber game of the three-game series, which featured 53 runs.

Mike Stanton (2-1) pitched in unfamiliar territory but picked up the win, firing 3 2/3 scoreless innings. The set-up man walked three and struck out three after entering the game in the third.

The Yankees, who open an interleague series with the New York Mets on Friday, used seven pitchers. Yarnall gave up five runs on five hits and two walks in one-plus inning.

"We're dealing with three more days, four more games," said New York manager Joe Torre, who will guide the American League in the All-Star Game on Tuesday in Atlanta. "We have to do the best we can."

Ponson yielded six runs and three hits with four walks in 1 1/3 innings. Johnson (0-8) remained winless for the season after allowing six runs and four hits, including three homers, over two innings.

Brady Anderson hit a leadoff homer and Mike Bordick doubled twice for the Orioles, whose major league-worst road record dropped to 13-34.

The Yankees entered the day one-half game behind Toronto for first place in the American League East, but three ahead in the loss column. The Orioles fell to eight games back.

Yarnall allowed four straight hits to start the game and hit a batter in the first inning. He gave up a hit and two walks to open the second before being replaced.

The lefthander failed to lock up a spot in the rotation during spring training and did not instill much confidence in Torre today, throwing just 19 of his 42 pitches for strikes.

"Nothing I did today was positive at all," Yarnall said. "I was falling behind guys, unable to throw a strike."

Anderson homered and Albert Belle smacked an RBI single in the first, and Mike Bordick and B.J. Surhoff each drove in two runs off rookie Ben Ford in the second as Baltimore went ahead 7-0.

The Yankees fought back in the second off Ponson, who allowed a leadoff infield single to Williams, then walked four consecutive batters. After an RBI forceout by Jose Vizcaino, Chuck Knoblauch knocked out Ponson with a run-scoring single.

"Inexcusable what happened today," Orioles first baseman Will Clark said. "We're paid to catch it, but if the ball doesn't get hit, we can't do that.

"When your offense goes out and pounds the opposing starting pitcher, you're supposed to shut the other team down."

Ponson left with a 7-4 lead after 1 1/3 innings, his briefest of 70 major league starts, after lasting at least eight innings in five of his previous eight outings.

"This is the first time that Sidney lost his composure," Orioles manager Mike Hargrove said. "He just never could regroup himself and that's the first time this year that he's done that.

"He's 23 years old. There are high expectations for Sidney and there should be. He has high expectations for himself but by no means is he a completed work."

Johnson, demoted to the bullpen after another bad start on Monday against the Blue Jays, came in to face Jeter and allowed a three-run homer as the Yankees tied it at 7-7.

Jeter, who was named to the All-Star Game on Wednesday, belted a 2-1 pitch over the wall in center field for his ninth home run.

O'Neill followed with his 10th, a line drive over the wall in right-center off a 1-0 pitch that gave the Yankees the lead for good.

Stanton started the third and kept the Orioles at bay. He threw 61 pitches and lasted more than three innings for the first time since May 9, 1998, when he went four without allowing a run against Seattle.

"You just go in to stop the bleeding and put a zero on the board," he said. "When we scored eight in one inning to go up by one, what I wanted to do was just get them out. You don't care how because there's not a more heartbreaking circumstance than for me to go back out there and give the lead back."

Johnson allowed a two-run double to O'Neill and a two-run homer to Williams in the fourth inning. Southpaw Chuck McElroy entered to pitch to the lefthanded Justice, who smacked an 0-2 pitch inside the right-field foul pole for a 13-7 lead.

The Orioles capped the scoring in the seventh with two runs off Jason Grimsley, who allowed an RBI single to Charles Johnson and accounted for the other run with a wild pitch.

Brosius tied the major league record by starting his fourth double play in the inning. He also began double plays in the first, second and fifth innings.

"That was just a quirky thing," he said. "When you have sinker-baller guys going for you, they were giving me a lot of ground balls today. It was just a strange little thing."