Jose Lima danced off the mound. Aaron Boone was mobbed at the plate. After season-long struggles, both players finally had moments to celebrate.

Boone hit a game-winning homer in extra innings Wednesday night, and Lima earned his first win of the season, beating his former team in Kansas City's 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

"It was sweet," Lima said.

Boone must have thought the same after hearing cheers for a change. Boone's shot leading off the 11th gave Cleveland a 7-6 victory over Colorado.

"That's the kind of beating you enjoy," Boone said of teammates jumping on him. "You don't mind it. It means you've done something good."

Boone homered in extra innings to win Game 7 of the 2003 AL championship series for the Yankees, but sat out last year with a knee injury and has been booed while hitting below .200 throughout his first season in Cleveland.

In other interleague games, it was Baltimore 5, Houston 1; Detroit 8, San Diego 2; Boston 6, Cincinnati 1; Texas 9, Atlanta 5; Toronto 5, St. Louis 2; Tampa Bay 5, Milwaukee 3; the Chicago White Sox 12, Arizona 6; San Francisco 8, Minnesota 4; Washington 1, the Los Angeles Angels 0; Oakland 3, the New York Mets 2; and Seattle 5, Philadelphia 1.

Lima always has that fighting spirit.

Winless in his first 13 starts this season, Lima (1-5) showed up Wednesday with his hair dyed blond in an effort to change his luck. He then pitched eight strong innings for his first victory since last season's playoffs, when he beat St. Louis while pitching for Los Angeles.

The Dodgers didn't offer him a multiyear contract, and Lima ended up returning to Kansas City, where he pitched in 2003. He seemed even more animated than usual after he threw a called third strike past Jayson Werth to end the eighth, dancing toward the dugout pounding his fist into his glove as the crowd roared.

"Jose got himself going," Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said. "By the third inning, I think he had himself locked in. We'd seen that from a year ago."

Matt Stairs and Emil Brown hit consecutive RBI singles off Brad Penny (3-3), leading the Royals to their season-high fourth straight win.

The Indians also are playing much better. Boone's homer off Blaine Neal (1-2) gave Cleveland eight wins in nine games and raised his batting average to .371 in his last 10.

"It feels good, especially to do it when we're starting to play much better as a team," Boone said. "I feel like we're catching our stride. I am, too."

Bob Howry (4-1) pitched one inning for the win.

At Boston, Bronson Arroyo (5-3) gave the Red Sox their fourth straight strong performance by a starter and David Ortiz drove in three runs to lead Boston to a three-game sweep.

At Toronto, Ted Lilly (4-7) pitched four-hit ball for seven scoreless innings to lead the Blue Jays, who moved back to .500 by taking two of three from NL-Central-leading St. Louis.

At Detroit, Placido Polanco had three hits and three RBIs, and Adam Eaton (9-2) had his eight-game winning streak snapped with his first loss since April 16.

At Baltimore, Rodrigo Lopez (6-2) pitched eight innings of four-hit ball, and the Orioles completed a three-game sweep of Houston.

At St. Petersburg, Fla., Hideo Nomo (4-6) earned his 200th combined major league and Japanese victory to qualify for the Meikyukai, a special honor for Japanese players.

At Arlington, Texas, Chan Ho Park (7-1) won his sixth straight decision, and Alfonso Soriano and Kevin Mench both had two-run doubles in the Rangers' five-run first inning against Braves rookie Kyle Davies (2-2).

At Minneapolis, Michael Tucker doubled and drove in three runs, and Moises Alou went 4-for-4 to help San Francisco snap a four-game losing streak.

At Chicago, Juan Uribe and Paul Konerko hit three-run homers and Frank Thomas added a solo shot in a 10-run sixth inning that helped Jon Garland (11-2) become the AL's first 11-game winner.

At Anaheim, Calif., Texas castoff Ryan Drese (1-0) made a sensational debut for Washington, holding Los Angeles to two hits over eight innings and outpitching Bartolo Colon (8-4).

At Oakland, Calif., Marco Scutaro lined a game-winning single off the wall in left-center with two outs in the ninth. Justin Duchscherer (3-1) pitched two innings for the win.

At Seattle, Ichiro Suzuki hit a leadoff homer and Aaron Sele (6-5) made it stand up with six solid innings in his sixth straight strong start.

At Chicago, Carlos Delgado, Miguel Cabrera, Juan Encarnacion and Luis Castillo homered and the Florida Marlins roughed up Greg Maddux (5-4) in their highest-scoring game of the year.