Desperate for pitching, the New York Yankees turned to Marlins reject Al Leiter. It turned out to be a perfect match.

Just days after being dumped by Florida, Leiter pitched three-hit ball into the seventh inning and helped the Yankees to a 5-3 victory Sunday night over the Boston Red Sox, their third win in four games at Fenway Park after the All-Star break.

"It felt really good to be in that uniform, be in this place, against a really good team," said Leiter, who was originally drafted by the Yankees in 1984. "I knew I wasn't done."

Leiter was 3-7 with a 6.64 ERA in 17 games for the Marlins before they designated him for assignment last week. Out of options for a Sunday starter, the Yankees on Saturday acquired him along with about $2.4 million to pay the $2.8 million left on his 2005 contract.

"This was a move out of necessity," general manager Brian Cashman said. "I'm happy, not just for the Yankees but for him (Leiter). He wanted the opportunity to show everybody he still had some gas left in the tank."

Leiter responded with a season-high eight strikeouts and three walks in 6 1-3 innings, allowing just one run in his first AL win since 1995. He was the 11th starter used by the Yankees this season - most in the majors, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Despite Boston's two-run rally against reliever Tom Gordon and closer Mariano Rivera in the ninth, New York won for the 10th time in 12 games to move a half-game behind Boston in the AL East. Rivera got out of the bases-loaded, no outs jam for his 23rd save.

Tim Wakefield (8-8) pitched his first complete game since 1998 and allowed just five hits, but they included two-run homers by Jorge Posada and Gary Sheffield and a solo shot by Alex Rodriguez.

Johnny Damon doubled in the eighth to extend his hitting streak to 29 games - the longest in the majors since Albert Pujols went 30 games in 2003.

At Cleveland, behind their fourth straight stellar outing by a starter, the Chicago White Sox completed their first sweep in Cleveland in 42 years.This time it was Jon Garland who shut down the Indians, winning his AL-leading 14th game with six effective innings.Garland (14-4) continued a trend set by Jose Contreras, Freddy Garcia and Mark Buehrle. Overall, the foursome combined for a 1.00 ERA, allowing three runs in 27 innings in the series.Tadahito Iguchi and Pierzynski hit home runs for Chicago, which improved to 30-5 against the AL Central and swept a four-game set in Cleveland for the first time since Aug. 27-29, 1963.

At Detroit, Runelvys Hernandez allowed two hits through five innings before he was ejected after triggering a bench-clearing brawl in the sixth.Three relievers finished the six-hitter for the Royals, who had three players and manager Buddy Bell ejected in the melee that started after Hernandez beaned Detroit's Carlos Guillen in the helmet, his third hit batter of the game.Mike Sweeney hit a two-run homer, and Mark Teahen added a solo shot for Kansas City.Mike Maroth (7-10) took the loss.

At Toronto, Jorge Cantu hit a go-ahead double in the ninth inning and Tampa Bay took three of four in the series.Chad Orvella (1-1) pitched two innings for the win, and Danys Baez pitched the ninth for his 16th save. Miguel Batista (4-3) was the loser.

At Minneapolis, John Lackey tied a career high with 10 strikeouts and Jeff DaVanon homered to lead Los Angeles.Lackey (7-4) scattered five hits over seven innings and allowed just one unearned. Francisco Rodriguez pitched the ninth for his 20th save.Joe Mays (5-4) gave up two runs and two hits in seven innings while striking out a season-high six.

At Seattle, Gil Meche became Seattle's first 10-game winner since 2003 and Miguel Olivo hit a solo home run.Meche (10-6) won for the fifth time in seven starts.Two days after collecting his 3,000th career hit, Rafael Palmeiro led off the second with his 567th career home run, tying Al Simmons for 15th place with 1,827 RBIs.Sidney Ponson (7-8) was good for five innings, then gave up five runs in the sixth.

At Oakland, Calif., Bobby Kielty led off the 14th inning with a homer off Kameron Loe (3-2), sending the Athletics to their sixth win in seven games.Oakland tied it on pinch-hitter Adam Melhuse's one-out RBI double in the ninth off Francisco Cordero, who blew his fifth save.Newly acquired reliever Joe Kennedy (1-0) got the victory despite allowing four hits in three innings for the A's.

The Houston Astros have had trouble scoring for Roger Clemens all season, and that - not surprisingly - didn't change against Chris Carpenter.Carpenter out-pitched Clemens in leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a 3-0 win over Houston.Carpenter (14-4) pitched a three-hitter in his fourth shutout of the season. The starting pitcher for the NL in the All-Star game became the league's first 14-game winner with the kind of effort that his teammates are used to seeing.Clemens (7-4) allowed one earned run - just the second in 53 innings on the road this year - lowering his major league-best ERA to 1.47. But some of his best efforts have been wasted, with the Astros scoring only 46 runs in his 19 starts.

Willis (13-5) failed to join Carpenter as a 14-game winner. The left-hander allowed eight runs - matching his season high - and 10 hits in 5 2-3 innings of Florida's 8-4 loss to Philadelphia.Willis also gave up eight runs in his last start, a 9-6 loss to the Chicago Cubs on July 8. His ERA was 1.89 after throwing a three-hitter against the Mets on July 3, but has now climbed to 2.83."I was just missing a lot in the strike zone," Willis said. "I have to go back to the drawing board and figure out how to get ahead in the count again."Vicente Padilla (5-8) allowed two hits in seven scoreless innings and tripled in two runs off Willis. Mike Lieberthal homered and Tomas Perez doubled in two runs against the left-hander.

At New York, Pedro Martinez (11-3) held Atlanta to two hits over six innings and the Mets earned a split of the four-game series.The Mets broke open the game with a four-run second inning against Mike Hampton (4-2), who was activated from the disabled list before the game and made his first start since May 31.Martinez threw just 61 pitches for his ninth win in 11 decisions. He struck out five and lifted his National League-leading total to 143.

At Cincinnati, Javier Valentin hit his first career grand slam and a three-run homer, connecting from both sides of the plate, as the Reds completed a three-game sweep.Sean Casey and Ken Griffey Jr. homered on consecutive pitches, starting a six-run rally in the sixth off Jamey Wright (5-10). The right-hander had allowed only one hit to that point.Ramon Ortiz (5-6) gave up four runs in 6 1-3 innings.

At Milwaukee, Tomo Ohka pitched seven strong innings against his former Washington teammates.Ohka (6-4), acquired by Milwaukee for infielder Junior Spivey on June 10, picked up his first win since he defeated Tampa Bay in his Brewers' debut on June 14 - a span of five starts. He allowed four hits and three runs, struck out six and did not walk a batter.Ryan Drese (3-2) lasted just three innings and allowed five hits and three runs for Washington, which lost for the seventh time in nine games.

At Los Angeles, Michael Tucker hit a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning, Ray Durham also homered and San Francisco took three of four from the defending NL West champs.Dodgers closer Yhency Brazoban (2-4) gave up the homer to Tucker.Scott Eyre (2-1) pitched a scoreless eighth for the victory and LaTroy Hawkins got three outs for his fifth save in nine attempts.

At San Diego, Chad Tracy had the first two-homer game of his career and Brad Halsey pitched six strong innings.Tracy hit a solo homer in the third inning off Tim Stauffer (3-5) and connected against Chris Hammond with a two-run shot that gave Arizona a 4-1 lead in the seventh.Halsey (6-7) held the Padres to one run on five hits, striking out four and walking three. Jose Valverde got the save.