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Hanley Ramirez homers three times, Red Sox out-slug Giants

It doesn’t work for him that way.

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Trevor Brown had three hits for the Giants.

In his first start for the Red Sox, Pomeranz was fine – for the first three innings.

Boston Red Sox’s Hanley Ramirez is congratulated by David Ortiz (34) after his two run, home run during third inning of a baseball game off San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Matt Cain at Fenway Park, Wednesday, July 20, 2016, in Boston.

On Barnes’ third pitch, he induced a ground ball to Ramirez, who stepped on the bag for the first out and threw on to catcher Sandy Leon for a tag at the plate. It was also a historically great night for Ramirez.

Hanley Ramirez and Max Kepler are both coming off impressive games at the plate on Wednesday night, and they’ll hope to keep their hot hands as the Boston Red Sox host the Minnesota Twins in the opener of a four-game weekend series on Thursday.

“He got some swing and miss to his fastball”, said manager John Farrell.

And Ramirez was the biggest reason why.

On Wednesday, Ramirez enjoyed his first career three-homer game, and he also made a series of key defensive plays at first base. Ramirez began the game with eight home runs this season.

The Red Sox right-hander got Boston out of a bases-loaded jam en route to three innings pitched with zero runs on two hits and two strikeouts.

Leon spun and tagged Belt as he slid home.

He had runners on base in every inning, but appeared to settle down after the first. Gyorko, dealt by the Padres in the offseason for outfielder Jon Jay, is 13 for 21 against his old team with six homers and 10 RBIs.

Porcello ended up striking out the side in the first and the Giants had two hits over the next five innings. Gyorko, Matt Holliday and Yadier Molina homered off Colin Rea (5-4).

Pomeranz was acquired from the San Diego Padres last Thursday. Knuckleballer Steven Wright (11-5, 2.78), looks to float his way to another win against Tyler Duffey (5-6, 5.23) and the Twins.

Letting an eight-run lead all but evaporate and taxing a bullpen depleted by injuries is not the way he wanted to start with his new team.

Naquin had his first multi-homer game, while Mike Napoli went deep for the second straight day.

“I don’t hit homers when I try to hit homers, ” he told reporters. He makes a play to his backhand, the one on the line as well.

PHOENIX – Josh Donaldson and Edwin Encarnacion each hit two-run homers and Toronto beat Arizona.

Donaldson’s homer off Patrick Corbin (4-9) landed in the Chase Field swimming pool in the first inning. Harper reached 20 home runs for the fourth time in five seasons. And Ramirez’s third two-run blast of the night, off Suarez in the sixth, virtually assured that the Giants would leave Fenway Park still looking for their first victory here in 101 years.

Barnes (3-3) went three scoreless innings and Brad Ziegler pitched a ideal ninth. The Cubs took two of three from the Mets in their rematch of last year’s NL Championship Series.

Cain (1-6), who also allowed a homer to Travis Shaw, was pitching for just the second time in a big league game since straining his hamstring May 27. “You look flat when you don’t hit or drive in a run and they start pressing a little bit and we’ve got to get on track here soon”. The southpaw has struggled of late with a 7.94 ERA since June 22, while his pitching opponent Chris Tillman (13-2, 3.29 ERA) is undefeated (6-0) in starts against AL East opponents this season.

Xander Bogaerts is 3-for-3 with 1 home run and 3 RBIs. Votto extended his post-All Star break surge with his 16th homer off Ian Krol in the seventh. Ross went back out to get two outs in the 5th inning, but then was pulled when he issued a walk to Green.

Hellickson (7-7) allowed one run and five hits, improving his value as the August 1 trade deadline approaches. Miami’s Wei-Yin Chen (5-4) gave up four runs and 11 hits in 5 1/3 innings.

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) – Doug Fister pitched seven innings and Jose Altuve continued his torrid hitting to help Houston beat Oakland. The A’s failed to advance a runner past second base against Fister.

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Ramirez’s heroics boosted Boston (53-39) to a season-best 14 games above.500 with its sixth consecutive win at Fenway. He has 2,994 career hits in the major leagues. That was the finishing touch on Suarez’s five-run, three-inning outing.

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