AL Roundup: A look at Wednesday's games

Manny Ramirez finally made his hyped Chicago debut, but it was a longtime White Sox slugger who ended up providing the fireworks.

Paul Konerko, batting cleanup in front of Ramirez, connected for a three-run homer in the eighth inning Wednesday to give Chicago a 6-4 win and a three-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians.

After weeks of speculation, Ramirez was finally in Chicago's lineup. Just by being Manny, he seemed to raise confidence in the White Sox that they could come back.

With the win, Chicago improved to 3-0 on a critical 10-game trip as it tries to reel in first-place Minnesota atop the AL Central.

"It's nice, and it's needed," Konerko said of the three-game winning streak since Ramirez was acquired. "Minnesota is going to be up there.

"The only time we can control what they're going to do is when we play them."

Elsewhere in the AL it was: Tampa Bay 2 Toronto 1; New York 4 Oakland 3; Boston 9 Baltimore 6; Minnesota 2 Detroit 1 (10 innings); Texas 4 Kansas City 3; and Los Angeles 4 Seattle 2.

At Cleveland, Ramirez hinted that he may indeed get a haircut, which has been a sensitive issue since the White Sox claimed him off waivers from the Los Angeles Dodgers. White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf's policy is his players have short hair, and Ramirez seems willing to conform.

"It seems like everywhere I go, people want to talk about the hair," said Ramirez, who shot down the topic during a news conference Tuesday.

So, will he get it cut?

"Why not?" he said.

Ramirez's debut with the White Sox was anything but a hit for seven innings. Chicago made three errors, starter Freddy Garcia left with a stiff back and the White Sox were down 4-1 while being stymied by Carlos Carrasco, making his first start for Cleveland in 2010.

But Chicago's other Ramirez, Alexei, homered off Carrasco to make it 4-2 in the eighth. The Indians pulled Carrasco after a walk, and one out later, Cleveland manager Manny Acta made another pitching change with the heart of the White Sox order coming up.

Justin Germano (0-1) then walked Alex Rios, and Konerko, who can count on seeing better pitches with Ramirez behind him, drove a 1-1 pitch to left to put the White Sox ahead 5-4. Ramirez watched the homer from the on-deck circle, the same place he was in the ninth inning Tuesday when A.J. Pierzynski hit a tie-breaking, three-run homer in Chicago's 4-3 win.

Ramirez doesn't need to hit to be a factor.

"When you see Manny behind those guys, you have to be careful how you pitch to them," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said.

Chicago reliever Tony Pena (4-2) pitched three innings after replacing Garcia, who left after four when his back tightened. 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.

"I was a little nervous there," Guillen said. "We kind of put him on the spot. He has a good chance to be great."

Wearing his familiar No. 99, Ramirez went 1-for-3 in his return to the AL after 2½ seasons with Los Angeles. He grounded out in the second, struck out in the fourth, blooped a single to right in the seventh and was hit in the upper back by a 70 mile-an-hour breaking ball from Germano in the ninth, two pitches after Konerko hit his 33rd homer.

Ramirez admitted he was a little rusty. Because of injuries, he's made only five starts since June 29.

"I'm trying to take it a pitch at a time," he said. "I haven't played for a long time.

"I'm just trying to get my rhythm and see as many pitches as I can. But I'm getting there."

Before the rally, Chicago hardly looked like a team in playoff contention. The White Sox kicked the ball around and struggled against Carrasco, recalled from triple-A Columbus to start the series finale. He allowed six hits and three runs in 7 1-3 innings.

"Carlos was fantastic," said Acta, whose team could have won all three games. "This is what we envisioned from this kid. Too bad we couldn't hold it for him at the end. It was a tough series. I hope we can learn from it."

At St. Petersburg, Fla., Evan Longoria snapped an eighth-inning tie with an RBI single, leading Tampa Bay past Toronto for David Price's club-record 16th victory.

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At 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.

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At Baltimore, Marco Scutaro and Adrian Beltre homered in a six-run seventh inning and Boston beat the Orioles.

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At 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.

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At Kansas City, Mo., Rangers rookie Mitch Moreland homered again and Texas kept pulling away in the AL West, beating the Royals.

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Angels 4 Mariners 2

At Seattle, Hideki Matsui hit a two-out, two-run homer in the seventh inning, barely eluding the glove of Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki, and Los Angeles rallied for a win over the Mariners.