NEW YORK - Orioles pitcher Travis Driskill had never been to New York before this week, let alone Yankee Stadium.

So the whole experience was new to him last night, from the screaming fans and obnoxiously loud speaker system, to the men staring at him with bats in their hands and pinstripes on their uniforms.

Intimidated? Please.

Driskill might look more like Clark Kent than Superman, but he's been nothing short of heroic for the Orioles this season.

Showing steely nerves from the first inning forward, Driskill kept the Yankees off-balance for 7 2/3 innings, and the Orioles managed to solve David Wells for a 4-3 victory.

The Orioles have taken two of three from the Yankees and will finish the series tonight with their top pitcher of this season, Rodrigo Lopez, facing Mike Mussina, their top pitcher of so many years past.

Driskill, like Lopez, has emerged from relative obscurity this season to give the Orioles a tremendous boost. At age 30, with his eyeglasses and everyman's physique, Driskill hardly looks like an imposing figure on the mound.

"It is a big deal pitching here in New York," Driskill said. "If you're good here, you're good anywhere I guess.

"I'm not even 6 foot tall. I pitch with glasses on. I'm probably not the most intimidating guy they've seen up there."

But he is 3-0 now, and his three victims are Oakland, Seattle and the Yankees - three playoff teams from a year ago.

The Orioles used four consecutive singles to take a 2-0 lead in the third inning, but the Yankees cut that lead in half in the fifth.

Tony Batista added a bases-empty homer in the sixth inning, and Jerry Hairston scored Gary Matthews with a sacrifice fly in the seventh, putting the Orioles ahead 4-1. Yankees catcher Jorge Posada hit a two-run homer off Driskill with two outs in the eighth inning, pulling New York within one run.

Orioles manager Mike Hargrove pulled Driskill, patting him on the back, before he left the mound. With dance music blaring over the center-field speakers, Driskill sat bobbing his head to the beat while reliever Buddy Groom made his warmup pitches.

Groom got Robin Ventura to ground out, ending the eighth inning, and Jorge Julio pitched the ninth for his 10th save.

The Yankees didn't even have a batter reach second base until the fifth inning, and that's when Driskill did his best pitching.

Nick Johnson drew a one-out walk, and Juan Rivera doubled off the center-field wall for his first major-league hit. That seemed to wake up a docile crowd of 26,506, and things didn't get any quieter when Alfonso Soriano made it 2-1 with a run-scoring single up the middle.

With runners on the corners and one out, Driskill fanned Derek Jeter with an off-speed pitch. It was Jeter's third strikeout of the game, and none were bigger than that one. Next came Jason Giambi, who singled in the first inning and grounded out in the fourth inning, hitting both balls sharply.

Orioles pitching coach Mark Wiley went to the mound, and Driskill nodded his head. He proceeded to pitch Giambi brilliantly, throwing a fastball on the outside corner for strike one, getting him to lunge at a breaking ball for strike two, missing with a fastball high and then getting him to lunge at something off-speed, for a lazy out to center field.

Jogging off the mound, Driskill was the first to the dugout, but people weren't congratulating him yet. He still had work to do.

He retired eight of the next nine batters.

"I think the last thing Travis Driskill lacks is guts," Hargrove said. "He's got a plan on how to pitch and he stays with that plan."

Wells entered the game 2-0 with a 2.35 ERA against the Orioles in two starts this season. He retired the first seven Orioles batters before they pieced together a rally in the third. Mike Bordick reached on an infield single, and Hairston singled into left field.

Melvin Mora brought home the game's first run when he drilled a ball off the right-field wall. The Yankees held him to a single, but Bordick scored from second and Hairston advanced to third.

Brian Roberts scored Hairston with a nifty little bunt single to the first base side of the pitcher's mound. It was more of a safety squeeze than a suicide squeeze because Hairston wasn't running on the play, but it still worked.

Batista gave the Orioles a 3-1 lead in the sixth inning with his 14th homer of the season, taking the first pitch from Wells and driving it over the left-field wall.