No matter what uniform Manny Ramirez wears to Fenway Park, he keeps on hitting.
The slugger the Chicago White Sox hope will help them to the playoffs singled twice in a 3-1 win over the Boston Red Sox in the opener of a day-night doubleheader Saturday.
He was 1-for-4 in the nightcap, wrapping up his first appearance at Fenway Park since joining the White Sox on Tuesday after being claimed on waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers.
"When you're a great hitter and you don't have your timing yet, that's helping the ball club," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. "Manny's not coming here to be the hero, not coming here to be the guy who is going to carry this load. The last two games he has played for us he's been great."
In June, Ramirez returned to his former stadium with the Los Angeles Dodgers and went 5-for-12 with a solo homer in a three-game series.
And that followed 7 1/2 seasons in which he caused headaches for opposing pitchers — and his own team with his oddball antics — by hitting 274 homers, 868 runs batted in and a .312 batting average with Boston.
On Saturday, in his second game since being claimed on waivers, Ramirez helped Chicago climb 3 1/2 games behind the American League Central-leading Minnesota Twins.
Ramirez went 1-for-3 in his first game with Chicago, a 6-4 win in Cleveland on Wednesday.
Saturday's day game was a makeup of Friday night's postponement of the series opener because of the threat of severe weather from Hurricane Earl. Chicago's Gavin Floyd was scheduled to face John Lackey in the second game
In the opener, John Danks (13-9) pitched seven strong innings and Paul Konerko went 3-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to 14 games.
"PK's the key to the White Sox right now," Guillen said. "Having Manny here helps, you know what I mean? I think the players go out there with more confidence. They might think they have to pitch to them because Manny's right behind him, but I think we won those games because we got clutch hitting and we pitched well."
Clay Buchholz (15-6) gave up two runs and left after just five innings in hopes he can pitch Wednesday night on three days rest against the Tampa Bay Rays, who lead Boston by 7 1/2 games in the AL wild card race.
"They've always been a good hitting team and [then] you throw Manny in the mix and it makes them that much better," Buchholz said.
On Saturday, Ramirez's singles moved up Konerko, who eventually scored both times. Ramirez grounded out in his other two at-bats.
Chicago took a 1-0 lead in the second when Konerko singled and took third on Ramirez's single to right. A.J. Pierzynski grounded into a double play, but Konerko scored.
Konerko started the fourth with a ground-rule double and moved up on Ramirez's groundout to second. Then Pierzynski singled to centre for a 2-0 lead.
Gavin Floyd (10-11) pitched six innings of one-run ball, yielding five hits to earn the win for Chicago in the back end of the twinbill.
