Post by Admin on Jul 21, 2016 11:38:54 GMT -5
www.bostonherald.com/sports/red_sox/2016/07/anger_fuels_hanley_ramirez_three_homer_game_in_red_sox_win
... after he was plunked by a fastball from San Francisco Giants reliever Albert Suarez in the fourth inning last night, he held his bat firmly in his left hand and took a few steps toward the mound. Ramirez looked ready to spill — one way or the other.
Ramirez had a few words to Suarez but otherwise kept his composure as he walked slowly to first base. Revenge was had in Ramirez’ next at-bat.
In the sixth inning, Ramirez took Suarez deep for his third two-run homer of the game and the Red Sox rode the six-RBI performance to a turbulent 11-7 interleague victory against the Giants in what was later described as a playoff-like atmosphere at Fenway Park. The win completed the Sox’ two-game sweep of the NL West leaders and pushed them into first place in the AL East by a half-game over the Baltimore Orioles.
“That was probably the most electric atmosphere we’ve had this year, and since I got called up (last season),” Travis Shaw, who slugged a solo homer, said of the team’s eighth win in nine games. “It was different than any other game we’ve played.”
Ramirez started the scoring in the second inning with a homer off Giants starter Matt Cain that sent right fielder Mac Williamson tumbling into the Red Sox bullpen. In the third, Ramirez sent another Cain offering to dead center, and by the end of the inning, Drew Pomeranz had an 8-0 lead to work with in his Red Sox debut.
“I had some long innings there,” said Pomeranz, who allowed five runs and lasted just three-plus innings. “I’m not used to having those long-run innings. This team is amazing.”
After a long wait in the dugout, Pomeranz allowed seven straight batters to reach safely in the fourth and was pulled with nobody out. He allowed eight hits and five earned runs after throwing 80 pitches.
Suarez replaced Cain in the third inning and plunked Ramirez in the fourth, drawing the Sox slugger’s ire.
“Every time I get hit, that fires me up,” Ramirez said. “That makes me a better player every time I get hit because I get so angry. Sometimes Hanley is not Hanley. It’s somebody else.”
Ramirez was asked what he said to Suarez.
“Don’t ask me that,” Ramirez said. “Come on. That’s a secret. It’ll tell you later what I said.”
Following a David Ortiz single through the shift in the sixth, Ramirez hammered his final two-run shot over the Green Monster for the first three-homer game of his career. Suarez could barely watch.
“I was trying to hit a homer,” Ramirez said. “I was trying to go to the moon.”
Ramirez became the first Red Sox hitter to homer three times at Fenway Park since Kevin Millar in 2004 against the New York Yankees.
Ramirez got a shot to tie the MLB record with a fourth homer in the eighth inning, but he grounded out softly to the pitcher and received a standing ovation on the way back to the dugout.