BOSTON -- Justin Turner has mainly blended in during his first season with the Red Sox, grinding out every at-bat and getting his share of key hits while providing the leadership everyone expected in the dugout and clubhouse.

But on Friday night, the red-bearded veteran jumped to the forefront of baseball’s most storied rivalry with an emphatic display of offense in which he compiled a double, a two-run homer and a grand slam in the first three innings of an eventual 15-5 rout over the Yankees at Fenway Park.

It was quite a display, particularly for a Boston team that had been scuffling for runs and wins of late.

To manager Alex Cora, it felt like the first day of summer.

“Finally,” said Cora. “I think this is probably the hottest [home] game we’ve played the whole season. It seems like every game we have played has been in the 50s, and today, it felt like summer. You know how it plays here in the summer and the ball will carry. And the guys did an outstanding job putting pressure on [Domingo] Germán. We did some great things. We put pressure on their defense. We were really good tonight offensively.”

However, the hitting heroics by the 35-35 Red Sox were dampened when starting pitcher Tanner Houck got belted below the right eye on a line drive by Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka to start the fifth inning. Houck exited under his own power. The initial diagnosis is that Houck has a facial contusion. The righty got stitches at the park and then went to a nearby hospital for observation.

When Houck departed, the Red Sox held a 13-1 lead, thanks to the damage done by Turner and Co. In a six-game stretch from June 7-12, the Red Sox didn’t score more than a run in a single inning.

On Friday, they busted out of the gate with four straight multi-run innings, with Turner in the middle of most of it.

“Obviously for everyone, it was just good offense all the way around,” said Turner. “And using the whole field, too. Our left-handed hitters wore out the Monster all night for nine innings and found ways to get on base. I think 15 runs and 17 hits, that's a pretty good offense.”

Fittingly, Turner had the first hit of the night for the Red Sox, a double to left that helped set up Masataka Yoshida’s two-run double off the Monster. Yoshida went 4-for-4 with three RBIs, marking his first four-hit game in the Majors.

An inning later, the Sox came back for two more runs, both coming on Turner’s homer into the first row of the Monster Seats. In the third, Turner unloaded for a majestic grand slam that hit the top of the back wall behind the bleachers in center, a Statcast-projected bolt of 429 feet.

“I haven’t seen too many guys go up there,” said Cora. “Obviously around ’07, ’08, Manny [Ramirez] used to hit it up there. That ball took off. That was a beautiful swing.”

Boosted by his best night of the season, Turner has a batting line of .278/.356/.451 with 10 homers and 36 RBIs.

It stands to reason that those numbers are going to improve as the weather continues to become more favorable to the hitters.

“I talked to Dustin Pedroia about this a little bit and he talked about the difficulties of hitting in the first two months,” said Turner. “But if you can kind of keep your head above water once the weather turns and it warms up, it's a great place to hit. So obviously, this is one of those warmer nights when the wind was blowing out a little bit. 

“And you see a lot of those balls that were caught last month and early in the year were going off the wall and I was lucky to get [the first] one over. I don't know if it helped the second one, I got that one pretty good.”

Though Rafael Devers and Yoshida are the two Boston hitters the opposition will focus the most on trying to stop, Turner will continue to be relentless in his own way.

“You see the numbers,” said Cora. “Pitches per plate appearances. The walks. It's a quality at-bat but one that we know that when the ball is gonna start carrying he's gonna see [more results]. He'll be OK in the power department, but the at-bat, it's just a good one. It's a real good at-bat.”