Sale stars again on mound, Red Sox snap skid

Chris Sale threw five strong innings, Kiké Hernández smacked a two-run homer and the Boston Red Sox snapped a four-game losing streak by beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-2 on Friday night in Phoenix,

It was Sale’s fourth consecutive impressive outing, raising hope that the veteran right-hander is ready to bounce back after four injury-filled seasons. The 34-year-old gave up one run on four hits while striking out three and walking one.

After a rough first few starts this season, the seventime All-Star is now 5-2 with a 4.72 ERA.

The Red Sox jumped ahead 3-0 in the second. Rookie Triston Casas and Connor Wong both hit run-scoring doubles while Raimel Tapia drove home the third run with a single through the right side.

Boston went up 5-0 on Hernández’s two-run homer into the left-center seats in the fourth. The Red Sox finished with 14 hits, including three each for Alex Verdugo and Casas.

At New York, Juan Soto and Fernando Tatis Jr. hit two-run homers, both lingering at home plate to admire no-doubt drives into the second deck.

Soto put the Padres ahead in the fifth inning against Randy Vásquez (0-1), a 24-year-old right-hander making his big league debut, and Tatis boosted the lead to 4-0 in the sixth against Ron Marinaccio. The drives totaled 871 feet.

Padres 5, Yankees 1:

Mets 5, Rockies 2: At Denver, Francisco Lindor homered and drove in four runs, leading Max Scherzer and New York. Brandon Nimmo tripled twice, walked three times and scored three runs during a perfect night at the plate for the Mets, who have won seven of nine following a 6-16 skid.

Scherzer (4-2) struck out eight in seven innings of one-run ball. Adam Ottavino got two outs against his former team for his fifth save, aided by Nolan Jones’ baserunning blunder in the ninth.