BOSTON -- After 44 days of first-place bliss, the Boston Red Sox find themselves looking up at the New York Yankees in the American League East standings this morning.

The Sox, still without an answer to their bottom-of-the-rotation pitching woes, fell to the Cleveland Indians, 6-3, last night at a sultry Fenway Park. At the same time down in the Bronx, the Yankees (62-41) defeated Toronto and now hold a percentage-points lead over the Sox (63-42) in the standings. With 57 games to go, the greatest rivalry in sports appears headed for yet another photo finish.

"We expected it to be back and forth," said Boston infielder Mark Loretta. "They've played very well for awhile now and we've played mediocre for a week to 10 days. We'll probably flip-flop a few more times before this is over."

The question is: can the Sox keep pace? After all, Boston has won 66 percent of its games over the last seven weeks yet still couldn't hold off the Yanks. New York geared up for the stretch drive with this week's acquisition of slugger Bobby Abreau and starter Cory Lidle, while Boston lost two key veterans to injury in Jason Varitek (knee) and Trot Nixon (bicepts).

Now those holes in the lineup could compound the team's pitching woes. Last night, Jason Johnson returned as the fifth starter after spending the last three weeks with the Pawtucket Red Sox. Johnson didn't pitch that poorly (3 runs in 5.2 innings) but still dug himself a 2-0 hole in a first inning that took him 36 pitches to escape. He trailed by a 3-1 score when he was pulled in the sixth inning but the Boston bullpen didn't help matters much.

Craig Hansen, one of the young pitchers Theo Epstein refused to part company with in any trade talk earlier this week, surrendered two runs in the seventh. Bryan Corey, a recent pickup from Texas, gave up a solo home run with his second pitch as a member of the Red Sox to push Cleveland's lead to 6-1 in the eighth inning.

The Sox scored two runs in the ninth but couldn't mount enough of a charge for a repeat of Monday night's late-game victory. The hero in that one was Boston's Big Man, David Ortiz, who slammed a walk-off home run. Last night it was Cleveland's massive pitcher (6-foot-7, 290 pounds) C.C. Sabathia who took over the starring role. Sabathia, who is now 6-2 after an Indians' defeat this year, improved to 8-7 this season by scattering 10 hits over eight innings.

He mixed a blazing fastball that topped out at 98 mph with enough off-speed pitches to stay out of trouble.

"His velocity was so good and he threw to both sides of the plate," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. "Then he had that breaking ball that really, really, when he needed it, he threw some good ones. We strung some hits together but we couldn't get a big hit."

Johnson, who fell to 3-11 in the majors this season with both Boston and the Indians, struggled badly out of the gate. Grady Sizemore, Jason Michaels and Victor Martinez all singled in the first to push two runs across. Casey Blake homered to lead off the third and give the Indians a 3-0 lead.

"I didn't get into a rhythm at a all," Johnson said. "After (the first inning), I started feeling a lot more comfortable out there. I was able to work a little quicker. Basically, I had a meeting with myself in the dugout and told myself to quicken up a little bit and I think that helped me."

The Sox got on the board in the third when Loretta lined a solo homer just over the Monster in left to slice the lead to 3-1. Sabathia escaped some trouble in the fifth despite allowing three singles thanks to a close play in his favor at the plate. Kevin Youkilis reached on a one-out single and moved to second when Ortiz nubbed a slow roller up the third-base line that Sabathia had little chance of fielding.

That brought Manny Ramirez (2-for-4, 17-game hit streak) to the plate with two men on and he delivered, lacing a hard single to left. With third base coach De Marlo Hale's blessing, Youkilis headed for home. Jason Michaels scooped up Ramirez's hit and threw a one-hopper to the plate that catcher Martinez grabbed and slapped on Youkilis' helmet. Youkilis jumped to his feet, slammed his helmet to the ground and argued he wasn't touched but umpire John Hirschbeck wasn't swayed.

Cleveland manager Eric Wedge lifted Sabathia after eight in favor of reliever Fernando Cabrera. With one out in the ninth, Cabrera walked pinch hitter Gabe Kapler before Alex Gonzalez lined a home run to left to cut the lead to 6-3. But this was no night for late-game heroics as Youkilis lined out and Loretta tapped out to the mound to end it.

kmcnamar@projo.com / (401) 277-7340