Ramirez's 3-run blast helps Pirates to 4th straight win

Aramis Ramirez, a Dominican expatriate who signed with the Pirates as an amateur free more than two decades ago, spent his early-20s plying his trade for a perennial loser that shipped him to Chicago shortly after he started making a name for himself in Pittsburgh.

After nine seasons with the Cubs and another four with the Milwaukee Brewers, fate brought Ramirez back where it all started, as the Pirates reuinted with the veteran third baseman ahead of last month's trade deadline.

And, as fate would have it, the 37-year-old almost singlehandedly lifted Pittsburgh to a fourth straight victory Saturday evening. In the bottom of the first inning, Ramirez pummelled his first home run at PNC Park in a Pirates uniform since 2003 when he crushed a three-run blast that helped his club secure an eventual 4-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies.

(Courtesy: MLB.com)

Ramirez's first-inning heroics also helped the Pirates earn a few more noteworthy distinctions. Saturday's victory improved the club's record to 19-7 this month - their most wins in August since 1992, when Pittsburgh last won a division title - while moving the Pirates 30 games above .500 for the first time since the end of the '92 campaign (96-66).

“I can’t ask for anything better in my last season,” Ramirez told Stephen J. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “I started here, I'm going to finish here, and hopefully, hopefully we bring a championship to this city.”

Heading into Sunday's series finale, the Pirates trail the St. Louis Cardinals by 3 1/2 games for the NL Central lead, albeit with six games remaining against the division leader.