Juan Soto recorded his fourth three-hit game this season but wasn’t part of the three-homer barrage that carried the New York Yankees to a 10-3 win over the visiting Houston Astros on Tuesday.

The Yankees won for the fifth time in six games. They extended their winning streak over Houston to eight games by battering Astros right-hander Justin Verlander (1-1), who entered his fourth start of the season having allowed just four runs. By the end of the first inning, the Yankees had tallied three and kept pouring on until Verlander departed with seven allowed after five frames.

Alex Verdugo, Anthony Volpe and Giancarlo Stanton all homered off Verlander, with Verdugo initiating the onslaught with a three-run blast to right-center field that followed the first of three singles by Soto (3-for-4, two runs) and the first of two walks by Aaron Judge (1-for-3 with an RBI single). Verdugo spotted the Yankees a 3-1 lead with his fifth homer of the year, a 383-foot shot.

After Verlander retired the Yankees in order in the second, the same trio of New York hitters — Soto, Judge and Verdugo — struck again in the third, with Verdugo producing a single that plated Soto and extended the lead to 4-1. With one out in the fourth, Volpe socked his fourth home run, a two-run blast to right that drove in Jose Trevino and extended the lead to 6-1.

Verdugo finished 3-for-5 with four RBIs.

On the first pitch of the bottom of the fifth inning, Stanton drilled a 421-foot rocket into the visiting bullpen in left-center field, his seventh home run, upping the lead to 7-1. Verlander allowed eight hits and issued three walks while recording two strikeouts. Verlander’s seven earned runs surrendered are his most since July 2, 2017, while pitching for the Detroit Tigers in an 11-8 loss to Cleveland.

Yankees right-hander Luis Gil (3-1) had few issues with the Houston lineup.

Gil did surrender a solo home run to Kyle Tucker with one out in the top of the first when he tried to sneak back-to-back fastballs past Tucker, who responded with his 10th homer this season. Gil responded by retiring seven of the next eight batters he faced and, after walking Tucker and Yordan Alvarez in succession with two outs in the third, set down the next eight batters in order.

Gil allowed one hit and walked four while striking out five batters over six dominant innings.

–Field Level Media