LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Through most of the first two months of the season, Yasiel Puig batted second and Hanley Ramirez hit third for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ramirez is still hitting behind Puig, only now they are in the third and fourth spots, and the change is starting to generate positive results for manager Don Mattingly.

Ramirez homered twice, drove in five runs and scored four times, tying career highs in all three categories and leading the defending NL West champions to a 12-2 rout of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday.

“I just try to help the team any way I can,” Ramirez said. “When Donnie asked me if I was OK with it, I said: ‘I just want to win.’ Puig’s been doing a great job, so why not hit him third so he can learn how to drive runs in?”

Ramirez, whose 4 for 4 day increased his career average against Pittsburgh to .362, hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning against Brandon Cumpton and led off the sixth against Bryan Morris with his ninth of the season.

The 2009 NL batting champion and three-time All-Star shortstop is 8-for-20 with eight RBIs in five starts in the cleanup spot after missing four games because of a sore left calf.

“He found some good pitches to hunt and put some good swings on some balls,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “The history he’s got against this organization is significant. I saw him break in. I had him on the All-Star team in 2008. He’s a good player, a good hitter, and he’s done some damage at the plate. He also stole a base today, so that shows you his wheel’s OK.”

Puig had an infield hit in the third inning and has reached base in 32 straight games, the longest active streak in the majors. He is 13 for 32 with a homer and three RBIs in nine games since Mattingly moved him from second to third in the lineup, and the Dodgers are 5-4 during that stretch.

Ryu Hyun-jin (6-2) breezed to his third straight victory, allowing two runs and 10 hits with four strikeouts and no walks. Last Monday at Dodger Stadium, Ryu did not allow a baserunner through the first seven innings of his 4-3 victory over Cincinnati.

“He threw the ball really well,” catcher Drew Butera said. “He had good command, changed speeds well in and out and did a real good job focusing on every pitch, and he made my job easy. Our guys do a really good job of having a plan and purpose every pitch.” 

Jamey Wright was credited with his second save in 19 major league seasons, after pitching the final three innings and allowing one hit. His other save was in 2011 with Seattle.

The Dodgers staked Ryu to an 11-1 lead with two runs in the first inning, four in the third and five more in the fourth. Ramirez and Matt Kemp triggered the onslaught with two-out RBI singles during Cumpton’s 28-pitch first inning.


Nationals club Rangers

WASHINGTON (AP) ― Nationals first baseman Adam LaRoche agreed there’s something to the theory that hitting is contagious.

If so, it looks as if there’s suddenly an epidemic on the Nationals.

Anthony Rendon went 4 for 5 and hit one of four Washington home runs, and Doug Fister allowed four hits in six innings, sending the Nationals to a 10-2 rout of the Texas Rangers on Saturday.

LaRoche, Jose Lobaton and pinch hitter Scott Hairston also homered.

“We’ve seen that a bunch,” LaRoche said when asked if good hitting can spread through a team. “We saw stretches of it last year where we would do this and say ‘here we go.’

“This was huge to build off of, to know that we can go out there and get more than five or six hits a game and just keep pouring it on,” LaRoche said. “That’s what the really good teams do.”

Washington has racked up 24 runs and 42 hits in its last three games, winning two straight to climb back to .500.

Fister (3-1) allowed two runs and retired the first 10 Texas batters. He’s 3-0 with a 2.13 ERA in his last four starts, with 21 strikeouts and two walks. 


Tanaka leads Yankees

NEW YORK (AP) ― Masahiro Tanaka throws a splitter that drops out of sight, ranks among the major league leaders in many prized pitching categories and appears, so far, to be worth every penny the New York Yankees paid to sign him.

His place in those pinstripes? Tanaka seems to have a different take than most everyone else.

“No, I don’t feel that I’m the ace,” he said Saturday through a translator.

Tanaka shut down Joe Mauer and the other Minnesota hitters while lowering his AL-best ERA to 2.06, and Brian McCann lined a go-ahead double in the eighth inning Saturday that sent the New York Yankees over the Twins 3-1.

Tanaka (8-1) permitted only an unearned run in eight innings. The heralded rookie from Japan gave up four singles, just two leaving the infield. Tanaka struck out nine, giving him 88 in 78 2/3 innings. The righty is fanning more batters in the big leagues than he did back home before getting a $155 million, seven-year contract from the Yankees.

Toronto 12, Kansas City 2

San Diego 4, Chicago White Sox 2

St. Louis 2, San Francisco 0

Cleveland 7, Colorado 6

NY Mets 5, Philadelphia 4

Chicago Cubs 8, Milwaukee 0

Baltimore 4, Houston 1

Atlanta 9, Miami 5

Boston 7, Tampa Bay 1

Cincinnati 5, Arizona 0

Oakland 11, LA Angels 3

Seattle 3, Detroit 2