Carlos Santana, who homered, and Michael Brantley each drove in two runs for the Indians.
Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka pitched six-plus innings, charged with three earned runs and seven hits to pick up his sixth loss of the season.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Yanks' late push: Brett Gardner, Chase Headley and Alex Rodriguez opened the eighth inning with three straight hits -- the last in the sequence scoring a run to cut Cleveland's lead to two. Later in the inning, with two outs, a grounder from Greg Bird skipped through the legs of second baseman Jose Ramirez for a costly run-scoring error, trimming the Indians' lead to 4-3.