Betts hits three homers to lead Red Sox to win

Mookie Betts hit three home runs against James Paxton during the first four innings Friday night in a 10-5 rout over the New York Yankees, whose starting pitchers have stumbled this week in historic fashion.

Betts homered in a three-run first that included J.D. Martinez’s two-run homer, went deep again leading off the third for a 4-0 lead and hit a two-run drive in the fourth for a 7-0 advantage.

Betts added an RBI double in the sixth off David Hale to give him five RBIs and grounded out in the eighth.

Batters have had threehomer games on four straight days for the first time in big league history. Betts followed the New York Mets’ Robinson Canó, St. Louis’ Paul DeJong and Minnesota’s Nelson Cruz.

Paxton (5-6) became just the fourth pitcher in big league history to allow a leadoff home run in three straight starts, according to STATS, after Brad Radke (2004), Brandon Backe (2008) and Yovani Gallardo (2017). DODGERS 4, NATIONALS 2 >> Justin Turner hit a two-out, three-run homer in the eighth inning to lift visiting Los Angeles in the opener of a three-game series. After the Nationals had retired 22 straight batters, reliever Tony Sipp (1-2) walked Joc Pederson and then gave up a single to Alex Verdugo before exiting with two outs in the eighth. Kyle Barraclough came in and immediately gave up the Turner blast to center field.

ALSO >> Carlos Correa was in the Astros’ lineup for the first time since May 26. The shortstop missed 50 games with a broken rib, an injury sustained during an accident at home. ... Infielder Travis Shaw, who slumped badly after hitting 63 homers over the previous two seasons with Milwaukee, was recalled after almost a month at Triple-A San Antonio. Shaw took the roster spot of righthander Jhoulys Chacin, placed on the 10-day injured list.