Didi Gregorius hit two home runs, including a grand slam, while Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez and Gleyber Torres also went deep on Friday as the New York Yankees took the opener of a showdown series by crushing the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-2.
In an interleague battle between the teams with the best records in the majors, Gregorius followed an intentional walk to Sanchez in the fifth inning with his 12th home run of the season and fifth career slam. He hit a solo shot in the ninth inning. Three of the home runs, including one by Gregorius, came against Dodgers left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu, who entered with a National League-leading 1.64 ERA that increased to 1.95. Yankees starter James Paxton (10-6) gave up two runs on five hits over 6 2/3 innings, with 11 strikeouts, including three against NL MVP candidate Cody Bellinger.
The Yankees won after getting swept in a three-game series at the Oakland Athletics earlier this week.
Ryu (12-4) matched a season high with seven earned runs, the same number he gave up June 28 at Colorado.
That outing was the only other time he went less than five innings in a start, not counting his 1 2/3 innings at the St. Louis Cardinals on April 8, when he left early with a groin injury. The Dodgers, who were coming off a home sweep of the Toronto Blue Jays, lost in their ballpark for just the second time in their last 12 games. They are now 51-17 at Dodger Stadium. 
The Yankees, one of two major league teams with more home runs than the Dodgers, first showed off their power in the third inning, when Judge and Sanchez went deep. Judge’s low line drive into the seats in left field was his 14th of the season, while Sanchez hit his 29th and the 100th of his career.
With the bases full against Ryu in the fifth, Gregorius hit the first pitch he saw over the wall in right-centre field for a 6-1 lead. When Gio Urshela followed two pitches later with a double, Ryu’s day was done.
Torres hit his 32nd home run of the season in the sixth inning off Yimi Garcia, giving him nine in his past 12 games. He has hit safely in 14 of 17 interleague games this season. Enrique Hernandez had two hits for the Dodgers, while rookie Will Smith struck out four times. The Yankees have won 10 consecutive games against left-handed starters.

Meadows’ grand slam keys Rays’ win over Orioles
Austin Meadows belted a grand slam, the key hit in a seven-run second inning that helped the visiting Tampa Bay Rays defeat the Baltimore Orioles 7-1 on Friday night. Meadows also homered in Thursday’s come-from-behind 5-2 win, but that was a solo shot.
This game was a different story, as Meadows’ first career grand slam broke things open pretty quickly and gave the Rays command. Tampa Bay also received a strong effort from starter Trevor Richards (4-12).This was just his second game — and start — since coming to the Rays from Miami in a July 31 deal, and he threw six shutout innings, giving up only two hits while striking out five and walking one.
Richards had a no-decision in his first start but shut down the Orioles in this one. This victory also ended a personal seven-game losing streak for Richards. He had not won since June 2 while starting for the Marlins at San Diego.
Aaron Slegers threw the final three innings and earned his first career save. Baltimore starter Ty Blach (0-2) gave up seven runs and nine hits in his four innings of work. Blach struck out two and walked two, and threw 47 pitches in the second inning alone.
The Orioles did get some help from their bullpen after that. Rookie Dillon Tate, called up earlier in the day from Triple-A Norfolk, threw three scoreless innings of relief after Blach left. It was Tate’s fourth major league game.
Kevin Kiermaier started things in the second with an RBI double that gave the Rays a 1-0 lead. After that, Tampa Bay scored six times with two outs. Mike Zunino lined a two-run single to right that made it 3-0. Meadows later got his grand slam, a blast to right-centre that gave the Rays a 7-0 lead.
The Orioles now have given up 261 home runs this year; they set a new single-season record in that category when allowing two home runs in Thursday’s loss. Baltimore scored its only run of the night on a home run, from Jonathan Villar, in the eighth.