Claimed on waivers by Chicago for his renowned power, Ramirez provided only a bloop a single in his debut but he was on deck when Paul Konerko hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning to give the White Sox a 6-4 win and a three-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday.
Chicago trailed 4-1 going into the eighth, then rallied after the Indians pulled Carlos Carrasco , who was making his first start of 2010.
With the intimidating Ramirez waiting in the on-deck circle, Konerko connected with two outs off Justin Germano (0-1) as the White Sox improved to 3-0 on a 10-game trip.
On Tuesday night, Ramirez was on deck in the ninth and ready to pinch hit when A.J. Pierzynski hit a tiebreaking, three-run homer in Chicago’s 4-3 win.
White Sox reliever Tony Pena (4-2) pitched three innings after replacing Freddy Garcia , who left after four with a stiff back. Chris Sale , the team’s first-round draft pick this year, worked the ninth for his first career save. The left-hander struck out Shin-Soo Choo with the potential tying runs on base to end it.
Yankees 4 Athletics 3: In New York,  A.J. Burnett bounced back from an awful August by pitching six effective innings and New York beat Oakland for its fifth straight win.
The Yankees held their one-game lead over Tampa Bay in the AL East. They’ll go for a four-game sweep Thursday with CC Sabathia on the mound.
Kevin Kouzmanoff hit a two-run homer for the Athletics and Brett Anderson (3-6) allowed only one earned run, but the A’s fell to 1-8 against New York this season.
Burnett (10-12) went 0-4 in five starts since his previous win, July 28 at Cleveland. He came off a particularly rough outing in which he lasted 3 1-3 innings and tied a season high with eight earned runs, leaving him with a 7.80 ERA in August.
Rays 2  Blue Jays 1: In St. Petersburg, Florida,  Evan Longoria snapped an eighth-inning tie with an RBI single, leading Tampa Bay past Toronto for David Price’s club-record 16th victory.
Price (16-6) allowed a solo homer to John Buck, a double and two infield singles over eight innings. The 25-year-old left-hander walked two and struck out seven before Rafael Soriano worked out of a jam in the ninth for his major league-leading 40th save in 42 opportunities.
Sean Rodriguez homered, tripled and singled off Blue Jays starter Shaun Marcum . Rodriguez was denied a chance to go for the cycle when he was intentionally walked to load the bases after Longoria delivered his go-ahead hit off Scott Downs .
Ben Zobrist began the winning rally by drawing a one-out walk from Shawn Camp (4-3).
The victory gave Tampa Bay its 11th consecutive home series win over Toronto, when hasn’t won a series at Tropicana Field since April 2007.
Red Sox 9 Orioles 6: In Baltimore, Marco Scutaro and Adrian Beltre homered in a six-run seventh inning and Boston beat Baltimore to provide Jon Lester with another win over the Orioles.
J.D. Drew also homered for the Red Sox, who trailed 5-2 before rallying to end a three-game skid. Boston remained seven games AL wild-card leader Tampa Bay.
Lester improved to 13-0 lifetime against Baltimore, but this one wasn’t easy. The left-hander yielded more runs (five) in the first two innings than in any of his previous 15 outings against the Orioles, but settled down in time to give Boston a chance to make up the deficit.
Lester (15-8) allowed five runs and eight hits in six innings. He struck out 10 and walked two.
Scutaro’s two-run homer off Mark Hendrickson (1-5) tied it in the seventh. Victor Martinez added an RBI double off Alfredo Simon , and Beltre followed an intentional walk to David Ortiz with a three-run shot.
Twins 2 Tigers 1, 10 innings: In Minneapolis, Danny Valencia’s one-out single in the 10th inning drove in Michael Cuddyer from second base and gave Minnesota a victory over Detroit.
The Twins kept their four-game lead over Chicago in the AL Central, improving to 9-5 against the Tigers this season, 7-1 at Target Field.
Cuddyer singled against Ryan Perry (2-5) to start the 10th and stole second base.
Jon Rauch (3-1) pitched a perfect 10th for the win, after starter Francisco Liriano tossed seven shutout innings for the Twins.
Max Scherzer went nine innings for the Tigers, allowing four hits.
Rangers 4 Royals 3: In Kansas City, Missouri, Rangers rookie Mitch Moreland homered again and Texas kept pulling away in the AL West, beating Kansas City.
The Rangers increased their division lead to 9 1/2 games over Oakland.
Moreland homered for the second straight game, leading off the sixth inning with a shot that made it 4-2. He has five home runs in his first 25 big league games.
Tommy Hunter (12-2) allowed two runs on seven hits and four walks in 5 2-3 innings. Rookie reliever Neftali Feliz worked a perfect ninth for his 34th save in 37 opportunities.
Angels 4 Mariners 2: In Seattle, Hideki Matsui hit a two-out, two-run homer in the seventh inning, barely eluding the glove of Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki , and the Los Angeles Angels rallied past the Mariners.
Held to just two hits entering the seventh by Seattle starter Jason Vargas , the Angels got started with Mike Napoli’s leadoff double. Two outs later, Matsui hit his 18th home run.
Trevor Bell (2-4) picked up his first win of 2010 as a starter, throwing six innings. Fernando Rodney pitched the ninth for his eighth save in 11 chances.