BOSTON -- If you had knuckleballer Steven Wright leading the Boston Red Sox in victories on June 15, stand up and take a bow.

Sit down. You're lying.

Wright, who made the Red Sox rotation out of spring training only because of an injury to Eduardo Rodriguez, won his fifth straight start and raised his record to 8-4 with 7 1/3 strong innings as Boston evened an early first-place showdown with Baltimore at a game apiece with a 6-4 win over the Orioles.

Wright's eighth win broke a three-way tie among him, David Price and Rick Porcello for the team lead in wins. Price has a $217 million contract. Porcello just started an $82.5 million extension.

Wright is making $514,500.

Even he's surprised to be leading the staff in wins.

"Yeah, especially with the guys we have," Wright said

After his long road to success, Wright said, "The fact that I'm in the big leagues is unbelievable."

"There's a lot of confidence with all of us when he takes the mound, and he's earned that because of his consistency," manager John Farrell said after Hanley Ramirez clobbered a three-run homer, Boston took a 6-0 lead and held on.

The big lead led to Wright throwing more fastballs than usual so he wouldn't walk people.

"Even when he's misfired with his knuckleball, he's a got a couple of other pitches he can go to so he's not defenseless if that pitch is a little erratic for an inning or a couple of innings," said Farrell. He's so calm -- you all see it; on his game day there's no change in his attitude or his personality. It's kind of refreshing in a way."

He has allowed three earned runs over his last three starts and seven in 35 2/3 innings during his winning streak. The home run ended his streak of 22 1/3 innings without an earned run, the longest such streak by a Boston starter in six years.

Ramirez hit his first homer in a span of 105 at-bats since May 10, a shot that left Fenway Park entirely in a five-run third inning. Ramirez also had a single and a walk for the Red Sox, who chased Orioles starter Kevin Gausman (0-4) in three innings. He has failed to win in 11 starts this season.

"It's very frustrating but I'm going to try to go back to the drawing board and take a couple of good things from it, good fastball command," Gausman said. "But other than that, I just wasn't very good today."

Wright, who came in leading the American League with a 2.09 ERA, had it down to 1.93 before Adam Jones crushed a two-run homer in the sixth inning. Wright finished with a 2.22 ERA.

He left with a runner on first and Junichi Tazawa gave up an RBI double to Matt Wieters before Jonathan Schoop singled Wieters home. That created a save situation for Craig Kimbrel, who worked a perfect ninth for his 15th save.

Xander Bogaerts and David Ortiz had two hits and an RBI apiece. Mookie Betts and Dustin Pedroia also had two hits each for Boston, with both Pedroia and Betts making outstanding fielding plays behind Wright.

Gausman worked a perfect first and a walk to Ramirez was the only baserunner through 1 2/3 innings. But seven of the next eight hitters collected hits, capped by Ramirez's blast.

"He was strong, he was crisp," said Baltimore manager Buck Showalter. "Their (velocity) guns here (are) just a couple miles fast but you could tell he felt good, almost maybe too good."

NOTES: Boston LF Chris Young left the game late with right quad tightness but manager John Farrell said he expects Young to play Thursday. ... RHP Tyler Wilson will start the series finale for the Orioles on Thursday night. He will face former Baltimore farmhand Eduardo Rodriguez. The Boston left-hander beat the Orioles in his first start off the disabled list May 31, but has faltered since. ... Baltimore SS J.J. Hardy will come off the disabled list either Friday or Saturday, while RHP Yovani Gallardo comes off the DL to start against the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday and C Caleb Joseph begins a minor league rehab this weekend. ... Farrell said he hopes his team will add a left-handed bat for the bench, from within, by Friday, and the team reportedly signed RHP Casey Janssen to a minor league contract. ... SS Nick Lovullo, the son of the Red Sox bench coach drafted in the 20th round of the recent draft, signed and will report to the Lowell Spinners, who open their season on Monday following a physical.