The Yankees congratulate Jason Giambi after he hit the game winning grand slam home run against the Minnesota Twins during the 14th inning. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        NEW YORK — Jason Giambi didn't take long to put his name next to Babe Ruth's in New York Yankees lore.

        Giambi hit a grand slam through the rain in the 14th inning Friday night, rallying the New York Yankees to a 13-12 victory over the Minnesota Twins.

        “This is the setup we've been waiting for since we signed Jason Giambi,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said. “I don't know how many times I've been asked when is he going to have his defining moment.”

        He just did.

        According to the Yankees, it was the 21st time a player has hit a game-ending grand slam with his team down three runs. Babe Ruth was the only previous Yankee to do it, on Sept. 24, 1925.

        “Well that's not too shabby,” said Giambi, who hadn't found his groove after signing a $120 million contract with the Yankees in the offseason. “I was just trying to keep the rally going, hit a single. I just got a ball out over the plate.”

        The Yankees hit six homers, including a tying solo shot by Bernie Williams with one out in the ninth. But New York stranded nine runners in the first four extra innings and gave up three runs in the 14th before winning in the bottom half.

        “It certainly made everything worthwhile,” Torre said. “This was such a frustrating game with a five-run lead all those chances in extra innings.”

        Shane Spencer led off with a single against Mike Trombley (0-1) and Derek Jeter singled with one out. Williams walked to bring up Giambi, who had been thrown out the plate in the 13th trying to score on Jorge Posada's double to deep center, with Denny Hocking making a perfect relay after Torii Hunter's throw.

        With only a few thousand fans left from a crowd of 39,470, Giambi hit a shot into the right-center field bleachers that set off a wild celebration.

        “I had taken a lot of first pitches and I thought I'd try to get the first one there,” Giambi said.

        The Yankees poured out of the dugout as Giambi rounded the bases and mobbed him as he crossed the plate.

        “Jason Giambi looks like Babe Ruth,” Hunter said. “He swings just like him from the left side. He's a great hitter.”

        The Twins walked off the field dejected after falling to 0-4 against the Yankees this season.

        “My teammates battled for five hours and I gave it away in 10 minutes,” Trombley said. “I just didn't get it done.”

        New York tied the team record for most homers in a game at Yankee Stadium, doing it for the third time ever and first since 1949.

        Williams hit two, and Robin Ventura, Alfonso Soriano and Posada also homered. The Yankees have 20 homers in the past five games, a team record, and lead the majors with 68 this season.

        Sterling Hitchcock (1-0) got the win despite allowing three runs in the top of the 14th. Bobby Kielty, Hocking and Jacque Jones all had run-scoring hits in the inning.

        The game lasted 5 hours, 45 minutes, ending on the 494th pitch.

        “We thought we had this game in the bag,” Hunter said. “But once again the Yankees showed they can come back and bite you.”

        Trailing 8-3 to nemesis Mike Mussina in the sixth, the Twins scored six runs in the inning, going 7-for-7 at the plate, with two outs coming on sacrifices and one on the bases.

        Mussina, 18-2 in his career against Minnesota, had retired nine straight batters before Brian Buchanan led off the sixth with a high popup. The ball fell for a double when Jeter, the shortstop, miscommunicated with left fielder Rondell White.

        The next five batters got hits, with run-scoring singles by Kielty, Hocking and Jones, and an RBI double by A.J. Pierzynski making it 8-7.

        David Ortiz added a sacrifice fly and Buchanan hit an RBI single.

        Rick Reed, who allowed four homers in 4 2-3 innings against the Yankees on Sunday, gave up three more. Williams' solo homer gave New York a 1-0 lead in the first.

        After the Twins scored three in the second, Ventura hit a two-run homer into the batter's-eye black section in center field in the fourth.

        With two on and one out later in the inning, Soriano hit a long drive to left-center. Jones, who made two leaping catches in left field earlier in the game, broke the wrong way on the ball but used his speed to recover. He leaped at the wall and the ball bounced out of his glove and over the fence for Soriano's 10th homer.

        Notes: Williams has two multihomer games this season and 15th for his career. ... Reed gave up six runs — five earned — and eight hits in four innings. ... Mussina gave up seven runs and nine hits in five-plus innings — the most runs he's allowed since giving up eight in a 12-2 loss to Texas on Aug. 2. ... Ventura's homer was the 23rd in the regular season to reach the black section at the remodeled Yankee Stadium, which opened in 1976.

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