Yankees get homers by Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in five-run third in win over Padres

SAN DIEGO — The Yankees have hit three home runs in an inning plenty of times in their long history.

Few of those innings, however, likely stack up when it comes to the raw power shown by Juan Soto, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton in the third inning of Friday night’s 8-0 victory over the Padres in front of a sellout crowd of 43,505 at Petco Park.

The trio of sluggers hit one rocket after another off Yu Darvish, the shots coming, to borrow from Mike Breen, in a rapid-fire “Bang! Bang! Bang!” fashion.

“I said it the last time, I’m happy to have Juan Soto on my team,’’ winning pitcher Carlos Rodon said. “I’m glad I don’t have to face him or Aaron Judge or Stanton, or our whole lineup pretty much.”

It was part of a four-homer outburst in a span of 13 pitches by the Yankees (36-17), as Gleyber Torres contributed the other on Darvish’s first pitch of the fourth.

Rodon, like every other Yankees starter on a roll during the first two months of the season, was the beneficiary of the offensive eruption, but the lefthander pitched as if he didn’t need the cushion. Rodon allowed three hits in six innings in improving to 6-2 with a 2.95 ERA in 11 starts. He and two relievers recorded the Yankees’ seventh shutout.

The Padres entered the night having won six of their last seven series and had one of the sport’s hottest pitchers on the mound in Darvish. He entered the day 4-1 with a 2.08 ERA and with a scoreless-innings streak of 25. That came to a fast end in the first when Anthony Volpe led off with a triple, extending his hitting streak to 17 games, and scored on Judge’s sacrifice fly.

But it was the third that left Darvish the pitcher’s version of shell-shocked. He allowed a combined 1,249 feet of homers to Soto, Judge and Stanton, with each of the blasts exit-velocity specials.

“Things escalated quick,'' Stanton said with a smile. "That’s what we’re capable of.”

Soto, traded from the Padres to the Yankees in early December and mostly booed by the crowd — though with a sizable number of Yankees fans in attendance, he heard some cheers as well — started the show with two outs in the third.

With Austin Wells on second, Soto lasered a 0-and-1 sinker 423 feet to right-center for his 14th homer of the season and fifth in his last seven games (it left his bat at 107.9 mph).

Judge, slashing .393/.528/.917 in his previous 25 games, followed with his team-leading 16th homer and 10th in his last 18 games, a 409-footer into the second deck in left that departed his bat at 104.9 mph to make it 4-0.

After Alex Verdugo lined a single off the leftfield wall, Stanton reprised his performance in this ballpark from the 2016 Home Run Derby, which he won, slamming his 13th homer of the season 417 feet into the second deck of the warehouse in left to make it 6-0. Stanton, not surprisingly, had the hardest-hit ball of the three at 110.9 mph. The three homers came in a span of eight pitches.

Rodon was seen in the dugout shaking his head after Stanton’s homer. “When Stanton hits the ball, it’s like a spectacle,’’ he said. “Everyone’s like, ‘Ohhhhhhh.’ He hits it, what is it, that brick wall out there? Ball was hit probably 117 or something, I don’t know. It’s always impressive to watch him hit homers. Always in awe. Jaw-dropping.”

Said Judge, “Just a lot of energy. That inning was just guys being locked in. It happened so fast, it’s tough to really say what we all thinking, but it was just everybody staying locked in taking good swings.”

Torres led off the fourth with his fourth homer of the season, a 411-foot shot to center that made it 7-0.

Darvish allowed nine hits and seven runs — both season highs — in 5 2⁄3 innings.

Rodon, 4-1 with a 3.06 ERA in his previous six starts, left with two on and none out in the sixth, replaced by righthander Dennis Santana. Santana, who brought a 5.03 ERA into the night but had not allowed a run in 12 of his 17 outings, got Donovan Solano to line to left and Luis Campusano to hit into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play.

Stranding those inherited runners allowed the Yankees’ rotation to improve upon its already impressive numbers. The unit came into Friday with a 2.85 ERA, the second-lowest mark in the American League and third-lowest in the majors, trailing only the Phillies (2.64) and the Red Sox (2.69).

The Yankees are the only team in the big leagues that has had its starters throw at least four innings in each of their starts this season. Yankees starters have allowed three or fewer earned runs in 44 of their 53 starts, two or fewer earned runs in 36 starts and one or fewer earned runs in 27 starts.

Notes & quotes: The one down note from the evening for the Yankees came in the ninth when third baseman Jon Berti fell to the ground a few feet from the batter’s box after hitting a grounder. “Looks like a calf injury,’’ Aaron Boone said. “We’ll see what we have.” Boone said he anticipated a stint on the injured list and added that the Yankees will bring up a player from Triple-A for at least the next two games before DJ LeMahieu is expected to be activated. LeMahieu (non-displaced fracture in his right foot) is expected to finish his rehab assignment this weekend and join the Yankees in Anaheim for a series that starts Tuesday . . . The Yankees put righthanded reliever Nick Burdi on the injured list with right hip inflammation, an injury that cost the reliever time earlier in the season. Righty Yoendrys Gomez was recalled from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.