Who would have thought that Hanley Ramirez’s offense would be the part of his game as a first-time full-time first baseman in doubt in mid-June?

The mercurial Ramirez has made a pretty smooth transition to first base. He’s not channeling Keith Hernandez or George Scott. But he has far exceeded expectations and anything he did defensively last season when he was lost in space in left field. All the agita about Ramirez at first has been without merit.

The balls slipping past him haven’t been routine grounders and throws, but pitches he used to demolish.

Entering Wednesday’s American League East staredown with the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park, Hanley was feeling the heat of being the cooler in the best lineup in baseball. In his previous 24 games, Ramirez was batting .186 with no home runs, two extra-base hits, and an abysmal .209 slugging percentage.

Before the game, some vulture from the media (slowly raises hand) pressed Red Sox manager John Farrell on moving Ramirez down from the fifth spot in the lineup. Farrell preached patience. It sounded like spin. It was prescience. Ramirez raked in a 6-4 victory over the Orioles. Welcome to the 2016 Red Sox.

As Hanley’s first home run since May 10 sailed through a picturesque June sky in the third inning, clearing the Monster Seats and ending a 110-at-bat homerless streak, you got the sense that Ramirez was back and the Red Sox weren’t going anywhere in the AL East race. This is the type of impeccable issue resolution that contending teams tend to enjoy.

Ramirez, who finished 2 for 3 with a walk and the three-run homer, went from cause for concern to reason to believe for the tied-for-first-place Red Sox on the very day his hitting woes were being targeted. Occurrences like that make it harder and harder to write off the Red Sox.

We’ve seen what the Red Sox lineup can do with Ramirez’s bat stuck in suspended animation. They came in leading the majors in runs, batting average, on-base percentage, slugging, and OPS without the anticipated production from him. It’s remarkable that David Ortiz has performed as well as he has without Ramirez providing any real deterrent to pitching around Big Papi.

If Hanley is going to hit, the Red Sox lineup is downright frightening.

“To have that type of middle-of-the-order bat, which we still have a lot of confidence in Hanley and his capabilities of doing that, it would certainly add an extra-base threat to the middle of the order,’’ said Farrell.

“And the way other guys are going around him right now, particularly David ahead of him, the way Jackie [Bradley Jr. has] come on this year, it makes that middle of the order even that much more formidable. So, it’s encouraging to see this last 5-7-day stretch that it’s starting to come to life a little bit.’’

Or as Ramirez put it: “Get ready. Get your tickets, first class, business, coach. It’s about to get hot.’’

Ramirez entered Wednesday night with a .150 batting average in June and just four home runs on the season, not exactly what you expect from your first baseman and No. 5 hitter in the AL East.

The Globe’s Alex Speier pointed out that the Sox came into the game tied for the fewest home runs by first baseman in the AL with four. The OPS produced by their first basemen ranked 14th out of 15 AL teams. The major league average OPS for first basemen entering Wednesday night was .770. Ramirez was at .718.

But it was typical Hakuna Matata Hanley. He wasn’t worried. He had started to hit the ball with noticeable authority in recent days.

“I needed a couple of hits for the confidence, but in my mind I knew that I was getting close,’’ said Ramirez. “My hands were coming out quick and short. So, that’s it. As a hitter you know, even if it’s one swing. You say, ‘Wow, I felt something there.’ You just go from there.’’

Ramirez’s offensive ineffectiveness hasn’t hurt the Sox. But it begged the question of whether Ramirez was still physically the same slugger the Sox had signed to a four-year, $88 million deal, determined to shoe-horn his dangerous bat into their lineup in left field.

Ramirez’s bat was supposed to be what made his transition to first base tolerable. Remember?

Last season, Ramirez tied Ortiz’s club record for home runs in April (10). Then he crashed into a side wall trying to make a running catch in left field on May 4 of last season, injuring his left shoulder.

Since then he had hit 13 home runs in 140 games and 568 at-bats, entering Wednesday night.

He changed his swing this season, keeping two hands on the bat to try to ease the stress that his one-handed finish put on his left shoulder.

It feels like he has been tinkering with it all season.

He was locked in against the Orioles.

Ramirez worked a five-pitch walk in his first plate appearance in the second — his fifth straight game with a walk — and scored the Red Sox’ first run on a two-out double by Travis Shaw.

Mookie Betts opened the third with an infield single. Dustin Pedroia followed with a solid single to center. Xander Bogaerts hit a sizzling comebacker that Orioles pitcher Kevin Gausman, who threw batting practice to Boston during his three innings, couldn’t handle for another infield single, scoring Betts.

Ortiz scorched a line single to right over the shift to score Pedroia to make it 3-0.

Ramirez then launched the first pitch he saw over everything and onto Lansdowne Street for a three-run homer, his first since he took Oakland’s Sean Manaea deep on May 10.

Now, I guess it’s back to fretting over the starting rotation.

Christopher L. Gasper can be reached at cgasper@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @cgasper.