NEW YORK, May 18: Jason Giambi smacked a grand-slam home run in the bottom of the 14th inning to lead the New York Yankees to a 13-12 victory over the Minnesota Twins Friday.

Giambi, who was signed to a seven-year $120-million contract as a free-agent in the offseason, has been booed by some Yankees fans in the first seven weeks of the season.

However his homer off the first pitch he faced from Mike Trombley was dispatched over the centre-right field wall to score Shane Spencer, Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams, and give the Yankees an improbable come-from behind victory.

The Yankees had been down 8-9 in the ninth as well, before Williams hit his eighth home run of the season to send the game into extra innings.

New York smacked six home runs in the victory and now have a major-league leading 68 on the season.

Minnesota had scored three runs in the top-half of the inning against Yankees reliever Sterling Hitchcock (1-0) before Giambi’s heroics.

The Yankees moved to within two games of the American League (AL) East leading Boston Red Sox, who lost to the Seattle Mariners 6-3.

The Mariners came from behind for the 15th time this season, to steal the victory in a battle of baseball’s two best teams.

They also tied a major league record for the best road record after 20 road games; 17-3.

Seattle spotted Boston and Red Sox starter Darren Oliver a 3-0 lead before scoring six unanswered runs.

Rolando Arrojo took the loss, giving up four earned runs in 2 1/3 innings after coming on in relief of Oliver in the sixth.

After giving up two unearned runs on three errors over the first three innings, the Mariners closed the gap to 3-2 on a two-run double by Ichiro Suzuki in the fourth.

Suzuki has now registered at least one hit in 33 of 38 games. Ryan Franklin (4-1) picked up the win.

In Cleveland, former Indians star catcher Tony Pena returned to Cleveland to earn his first victory as manager of the Kansas City Royals, 6-2.

Paul Byrd, (7-2), one of the surprise pitching stories of the season, gave up one earned run over eight innings to lower his earned-run-average to 2.56.

The Royals were led by Joe Randa’s two-run homer in the first and a solo shot by Chuck Knoblauch.

Cleveland’s lefthander Chuck Finley (2-5) took the loss.

In Detroit, the lowly Tigers broke a seven-game losing streak with a 6-3 victory over the Texas Rangers.

The Tigers (12-27) smacked four home runs including two by right-fielder Robert Fick to make a winner out of Jeff Weaver (3-5) who pitched eight innings. He has not had a home run hit off him in 62 innings.

Juan Acevedo pitched the ninth for his fourth save. Chris Truby, acquired from the Montreal Expos a day earlier, played third for the Tigers and went hitless although he made a bare-handed play for an out in the eighth.

Friday’s results (home team in CAPS):

AMERICAN LEAGUE