The Red Sox hammered Lee for seven runs and nine hits in four innings, and as he jogged from the field to loud boos in the fifth, the left-hander sarcastically removed his cap and saluted his critics.

“I wasn’t trying to show anybody up,” Lee explained. “I just took my hat off.”

In Lee’s previous start, he argued with catcher Victor Martinez in the dugout shortly after beaning Texas slugger Sammy Sosa. Lee fell to 0-4 with an 11.70 ERA in his past four starts, a stunning decline for the former 18-game winner, who has two options left and could soon be dropped from Cleveland’s rotation.

“Obviously this was not a good night for him,” said manager Eric Wedge, who added Lee’s status would be discussed in the coming hours.

Ramirez’s first homer was unlike all but two others in the Jake’s history.

He turned on the first pitch from Lee, sending it soaring over a row of shrubs and into a line of trees in Heritage Park, a two-tiered monument park that opened this season. Ramirez’s homer was only bettered by Jim Thome’s 511-footer (1999) and Mark McGwire’s 485-footer (1997) in the ballpark’s 13-year existence.

“I’m not amazed,” Martinez said. “We all know what he can do.”

Ramirez, who homered in his final at-bat as a member of the Indians in 2000, punched his right fist into the air as he rounded first, a defiant sign to some of the booing fans who haven’t forgiven him for leaving as a free agent.

Notes: Red Sox RHP Curt Schilling pitched five scoreless innings for Pawtucket, striking out eight in a rehab start at Toledo, about 90 miles away. Schilling, who hasn’t pitched for Boston in more than a month with shoulder tendinitis, will make at least one more minor league start before he’s activated from the DL. ... Hall of Famer Frank Robinson, who became baseball’s first black manager in 1975 with Cleveland, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Robinson received a standing ovation and proudly pumped his fist when his 60-foot lob passed through the strike zone.

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