In his next at-bat, Sheffield lined a solo homer to left-center off Alfredo Aceves.

"When the work you do with a coach pays off, it makes you feel good," Sheffield said. "The light goes on and you are helping your team again."

Sheffield was hitting .063 with one single in 16 at-bats in Grapefruit League games before those second- and fourth-inning homers in a 7-4 win against the Yankees that broke a five-game losing streak.

Sheffield said he noticed a photo taken of him in the first half of the 2007 season before he hurt his shoulder, which didn't completely heal until this offseason. His hands were much higher than he had held them since the injury.

He said he dropped the hands to compensate for the bad shoulder and had failed to adjust to his old hand placement once it healed.

"When I took that first swing today," Sheffield said, "it felt good. My head was on the pitch. That set the tone. But I can't sit back and say, 'It's there now.' I've got to perfect it. And the way to do that is repetition, to have your hands right on every swing.

"But I was surprised at the comfort I felt with this right away."

When a hitter is 40, as Sheffield is, and he doesn't get off to a good start, doubt can creep into minds.

"I felt something was wrong, something was off," Sheffield said. "I wasn't squaring up on balls like I would like to. I want to be capable of hitting the ball out every time."

After he walked his first time up Wednesday, he did just that with the homers.

"There are things you forget about when you get injured and begin to compensate," Sheffield said.