Rookie Josh Tomlin enjoyed a dream debut as he out-duelled New York Yankees ace CC Sabathia to lead his side to a 4-1 win.

Pitching against the most storied franchise and one of the most feared offences in the game, he pitched seven shutout innings before being debited with an earned run in the eighth as the Yankees could find no answers.

In doing so he kept Alex Rodriguez waiting on 599 career home runs and condemned Sabathia, a former Indian, to just his fourth loss of the season.

Matt LaPorta led the Indians' offence with two RBI on two hits.

The Tampa Bay Rays took advantage of the Yankees' slip-up, beating the Detroit Tigers 3-2 on the back of Carlos Pena's two-run homer and and Matt Joyce's RBI double to cut the gap at the top of the American League East to two games.

The Boston Red Sox beat the Los Angeles Angels 4-2, while Jose Bautista hit two home runs to take his season total to a league-leading 30 as the Toronto Blue Jays overcame the Baltimore Orioles 8-2.

Gavin Floyd threw seven shutout innings and got more than enough support as home runs from Alexei Ramirez, Paul Konerko and Andruw Jones gave the Chicago White Sox an 11-0 win over the Seattle Mariners.

Rookie Danny Valencia had four hits for the second night in a row as the Minnesota Twins again beat up on the Kansas City Royals.

A day after beating the same opposition 19-1, Valencia's three RBI and a dinger from JJ Hardy gave them an 11-2 win tonight.

Cliff Lee conceded just one unearned run in nine innings as the Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics 3-1.

Lee was not credited with the win, though, as the victory came courtesy of Nelson Cruz's two-run walk-off homer in the 10th.

Scott Rolen, Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips all had four hits as the Cincinnati Reds beat the Milwaukee Brewers 12-4.

That result lifted them into a virtual tie for first in the National League Central with the St Louis Cardinals, who lost 8-2 to the New York Mets. Jeff Franceur hit a three-run homer in the fourth.

Miguel Batista, pitching for star rookie Stephen Strasburg who had a shoulder inflammation, combined with the Washington Nationals bullpen to shut down the Atlanta Braves and claim a 3-0 win.

Chad Billingsley's six shutout innings and two RBI from Andre Ethier helped the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 2-0 win over the San Diego Padres.

Elsewhere, the Colorado Rockies lost their seventh straight game, 4-2 to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the San Francisco Giants beat the Florida Marlins 6-4, the Houston Astros were 6-1 winners over the Chicago Cubs and Ryan Howard's two-run homer helped the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 9-5.