Yankees Hand Lima First Loss

Jose Lima was enjoying a dream season -- until he ran into the New York Yankees.

Jorge Posada and Karim Garcia homered as New York sent Lima to his first loss of the season with an 11-6 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Monday night at Yankee Stadium.

Jeff Weaver won despite another shaky outing and Alfonso Soriano hit a two-run single for the Yankees, who built a 9-2 lead en route to their fifth consecutive victory.

The Yankees are a season-high 29 games over .500 and 5 1/2 games ahead of Boston in the American League East, their largest margin of the year.

Nick Johnson had three hits and Hideki Matsui scored three times as New York took the opener of a three-game series between division leaders after losing two of three in Kansas City last week.

The Royals lead Chicago by two games in the AL Central after the White Sox beat the Angels on Monday.

Lima (7-1) has pitched well this season, but he struggled in his return from the disabled list -- the right-hander had been out since Aug. 2 with a groin strain.

Carlos Beltran homered, tripled and singled for the Royals, driving in three runs. Needing a double for the cycle, he grounded out against Jeff Nelson leading off the eighth.

The Yankees broke it open with five consecutive hits in the third.

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Texas 4, Detroit 2 -- Alex Rodriguez’s two-run homer in the 16th inning helped the Rangers win at Detroit and extend their winning streak to six.

It was the sixth loss in a row for the Tigers, who have lost 10 of 11 and dropped to a season-worst 61 games under .500 at 31-92. Detroit trailed, 2-1, with one out in the ninth, but Shane Halter tied it at 2 with a homer off ex-Tiger Francisco Cordero.

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Tampa Bay 7, Cleveland 4 -- Carl Crawford drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single in the 13th to help the Devil Rays win at Cleveland. Julio Lugo hit two home runs and finished with three hits and three RBIs for Tampa Bay.