Even with another night of poor pitching and disastrous defense, the New York Yankees slugged their way back into first place for the first time since the opening week of the season.

Jorge Posada, Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui homered, and Ruben Sierra hit a go-ahead, two-run single in the eighth inning to give New York a wild 11-10 win over the Texas Rangers on Monday night.

"I can't explain how proud I am of this group of guys. They keep plugging away and keep battling," said Yankees manager Joe Torre, who celebrated his 65th birthday.

Seconds after getting the big hit, Sierra injured his left hamstring, which likely will send him back to the disabled list. He was sidelined from April 21 to May 20 with a partially torn right biceps.

"I feel good to get the job done, but I feel bad that I got hurt," Sierra said. "It's sore. I don't know how long it will be, I think it's strained. I don't think it's that bad."

New York, which won for the 11th time in 13 games, improved to a season-high nine games over .500 (50-41) and leads the AL East by a half-game over Boston and Baltimore.

The Yankees, who have won seven straight division titles, had not been alone in first since beating the Red Sox in the April 3 season opener and hadn't held a share since after games of April 9.

"It's a stepping stone, but we've got much loftier goals on this club," Alex Rodriguez said.

Boston, which had been alone in first place since June 24, lost for the sixth time in seven games.Danys Baez completed the three-hitter. Johnny Damon ended the game with a lineout to right, ending his 29-game hitting streak.

Sammy Sosa hit his 584th homer to move past Mark McGwire into sole possession of sixth on the career list, Rafael Palmeiro went 3-for-5 to tie Al Kaline for 24th place in hits at 3,007 and Miguel Tejada homered in the 11th off Juan Rincon (1-2).Sosa and Tejada hadn't homered since June 18.

Joe Crede hit a three-run homer in a five-run seventh against Chris Spurling (2-1) as the White Sox overcame a 4-1 deficit and won their fifth straight.

Orlando Cabrera's two-run single off Kirk Saarloos (5-6) capped a four-run sixth at Anaheim, and Vladimir Guerrero had two RBIs.

At Cleveland, Cliff Lee (10-4) allowed four hits in his first career complete game, called with one out in the bottom of the fifth following two rain delays.

Chipper Jones homered in his first at-bat since early June and Andruw Jones hit a pair of two-run homers to lead Atlanta over San Francisco.

Thanks to Washington's stumbling three-error performance in a loss to Colorado, the Braves moved within a half-game of Washington for first place in the division.Washington has lost nine of 12 games, including four consecutive one-run games.

At Cincinnati, Derrek Lee hit two of Chicago's five homers off Brandon Claussen (4-7) and became the first major leaguer to reach 30 homers this season. Todd Walker also homered twice.Cardinals 11, Brewers 4At St. Louis, Albert Pujols homered, singled, doubled and scored four times, helping Matt Morris win his 11th game for St. Louis.

At Phoenix, Quinton McCracken tripled in the winning run in the 11th with his fourth hit of the night and Arizona rallied after blowing a four-run lead to hand Florida its seventh loss in eight games.