NEW YORK, Oct 16: The New York Yankees, who have won a record 26 World Series, set another mark here Monday when they beat the Oakland A’s 5-3 in the final game of the best-of-five American League Division Championship Series.

New York became the first team to win a divisional series after losing the first two games at home to clinch 3-2.

The Yankees will meet the Seattle Mariners, who defeated the Cleveland Indians 3-1 earlier in the fifth game of their divisional contest, in the best-of-seven AL Championship Series, beginning in Seattle Wednesday.

In an emotional night before a capacity crowd, New York starting pitcher Roger Clemens, nursing a hamstring injury, gave up two runs in the first two innings.

But then the wheels began to fall off the A’s with sloppy defence as they made three errors, were unnerved by the New York crowd, pitcher Mark Mulder hit two batters, and lost starting catcher Ramon Hernandez because of a wrist injury early. The end result was New York’s 50th come-from-behind win this season.

The Yankees again rode on the back of shortstop 27-year-old Derek Jeter, who now has a record 86 hits in the post season. He made a spectacular play when he hurtled into the crowd to catch a hit by Oakland’s Terrence Long in the eighth inning.

New York second baseman Alfonso Soriano got the ball rolling with a hit that brought home Jorge Posada and Shane Spencer to level the score 2-2.

Then the Yankees took a 3-2 lead with Bernie Williams crossing home on an error by Eric Chavez and a sacrifice fly by Jeter made it 4-2 as Chuck Knoblauch came home.

The icing came when David Justice slammed a solo home run over the right field fence for 5-3.

In Seattle, the Mariners starting pitcher Jamie Moyer led the way with a brilliant six innings and closer Kazuhiro Sasaki was dominant in the ninth to keep Cleveland out.

Ichiro Suzuki and Mark McLemore played vital roles in the offense as Cleveland failed to stop the Mariners, who won a major league record-tying 116 games in the regular season.

Suzuki, the Japanese rookie sensation, went 3-for-4 with a run scored and was the dominant offensive force in the series. He tied teammate Edgar Martinez’s Division Series record with 12 hits and batted .600 over the five games.

Seattle trailed 2-1 in the series and was losing in the seventh inning of Game Four. But behind Suzuki, the Mariners rallied to win. In the decisive fifth game, the Mariners grabbed an early lead and were never headed.

Monday’s divisional playoff results (home team in CAPS):

American League