Lee (7-3) beat New York twice in last year’s World Series for the Philadelphia Phillies, including Game 1 at Yankee Stadium. He won the ballpark opener for Cleveland in April 2009.
This time, the left-hander allowed two solo homers to Nick Swisher and his first walk in almost a month. The Yankees scored twice in the ninth.
Jorge Posada’s walk in the second inning was Lee’s first since walking Nick Punto on June 2—144 batters and five starts ago.
Rob Johnson hit a two-run double in the sixth and Ichiro Suzuki drove in two runs with an RBI single in the third and a sacrifice fly in the fifth. Franklin Gutierrez homered for Seattle.
Yankees starter Phil Hughes (10-2) allowed seven runs—six earned—and 10 hits in 5 2-3 innings. The Yankees had won six of eight.
Lee yielded three earned runs in his 18th career complete game and fifth this season. He allowed eight hits and one walk, striking out two.
At Anaheim, California, Bobby Abreu hit a tiebreaking, three-run double in the sixth inning, and Los Angeles overcame Vladimir Guerrero’s homer and three RBIs in his return to Angel Stadium.
Abreu delivered with a full count and two outs in the sixth for the second-place Angels, who ended Texas’ eight-game road winning streak one.
Guerrero, who wasn’t re-signed by Los Angeles last winter after six seasons, singled after getting a standing ovation in the first inning. He drove in a run with a third-inning sacrifice fly before an impressive two-run homer to center in the seventh off reliever Kevin Jepsen.
At Boston, David Ortiz hit a three-run homer to break a fifth-inning tie, and Adrian Beltre had four hits for Boston.
John Lackey (9-3) won his fifth straight decision, allowing one run and eight hits to give the Red Sox their 10th win in 13 games. With the Yankees’ loss to the Seattle Mariners, Boston moved within one game behind first-place New York in the AL East.
Lackey and James Shields (6-8) had dueling shutouts until the bottom of the fifth, when Ortiz homered with runners on second and third and two outs. Beltre singled and scored to make it 5-0 after six, then doubled and scored on Bill Hall’s homer that made it 8-1 after seven.
Willy Aybar hit a two-run pinch-homer in the eighth to make it 8-3. The Rays added two more on Ben Zobrist’s bloop single in the ninth, but Jonathan Papelbon struck out Aybar for his 18th save.
Shields, who has lost seven straight starts, gave up five runs and seven hits before leaving three batters into the sixth inning.
At Cleveland, Fausto Carmona rebounded from his worst start of the season by pitching into the seventh inning for Cleveland.
Carmona (7-6) gave up four runs—three earned—and six hits over 6 1-3 innings to help the Indians to their first three-game winning streak since a four-game run June 9-12. Cleveland followed that modest streak by losing 10 of 11 until winning Sunday in Cincinnati.
Kerry Wood worked the ninth for his third save in three games and eighth in 11 chances overall.
Brandon Morrow (5-6) struck out eight over six innings and Adam Lind broke out of a 1-for-17 slump with a two-run single for Toronto, which has lost seven of nine.
At Baltimore, substitute starter Vin Mazzaro allowed three hits in six-plus innings and Kurt Suzuki had three RBIs as Oakland won its fourth straight.
Coco Crisp had three hits, stole two bases and scored twice for the A’s, whose winning streak matches their season high. Since returning from the disabled list a week ago, Crisp is 10 for 22 (.455) with nine runs scored in six games.
Cesar Izturis and Luke Scott had RBIs for the Orioles, whose season-high four-game winning streak ended.
After Oakland starter Dallas Braden was scratched because of elbow stiffness, Mazzaro (3-2) was pressed into action on short notice. The right-hander gave up one run, walked six and struck out two. Three of his seven career wins have come against the Orioles.
At Kansas City, Mo., Chicago’s Gavin Floyd pitched into the seventh inning to earn his first win in five weeks.
Floyd, who was 0-3 with a 2.79 ERA in six starts since beating Florida on May 22, held the Royals to three runs, one unearned, and seven hits in 6 2-3 innings. In his previous two 2010 starts against the Royals, Floyd was 0-2, allowing 11 runs and 23 hits in 12 1/3 innings.
Floyd (3-7) entered the game 0-4 in five career starts at Kauffman Stadium and 1-7 with a 5.53 ERA in 10 career starts against the Royals. He beat them for the first time since June 3, 2008.
Royals starter Brian Bannister (7-6) was lifted after four innings, allowing four runs and eight hits on 90 pitches. Bannister lost for the second time in eight starts at Kauffman Stadium.
At Minneapolis, Denard Span tied a modern-era record with three triples and had five RBIs to get Minnesota back into first place in the AL Central.
Span also had a single and a walk for the Twins (42-35), who moved a half-game ahead of the Tigers (41-35) one night after losing their division lead for the first time since early April. Span became the first player since Atlanta’s Rafael Furcal in 2002 to hit three triples in a game.
Many players have hit three triples in a game since 1900. The only other Twin to do it was Ken Landreaux in 1980.
Nick Blackburn (7-5) earned his first victory of the month, allowing four runs and seven hits with four strikeouts in seven innings.
