WASHINGTON — The Washington Nationals tied a franchise record with eight home runs Thursday, including two apiece by Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman, and Max Scherzer pitched six innings of three-hit ball in a 15-2 rout of the fading Milwaukee Brewers.

Washington matched two major league records in a seven-run third inning: Most consecutive home runs (four) and most home runs in an inning (five).

After Harper connected off Michael Blazek – who was making his first major league start – in the first inning, Brian Goodwin started the long-ball barrage in the third with a two-run drive. Wilmer Difo, Harper and Zimmerman followed with long home runs.

The streak was interrupted when Daniel Murphy flied out. Anthony Rendon resumed the fun with a shot to dead center that finally chased Blazek.

“I felt like I made some decent pitches but they were locked in on everything,” said Blazek. “It’s not how I pictured it going.”

MARLINS 4, REDS 1: Chris O’Grady pitched seven scoreless innings to help Miami win at home to open a four-game series.

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Derek Dietrich, who drove in five of Miami’s franchise-record 22 runs Wednesday in a win over Texas, homered and knocked in three.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

INDIANS 2, ANGELS 1: Trevor Bauer pitched a season-high eight innings, Francisco Lindor singled to break a tie in the seventh and Cleveland, at home, won its seventh straight game.

Cleveland is on its longest winning streak of the season and is a season-high 10 games over .500. The Indians completed a 7-0 homestand.

BLUE JAYS 8, ATHLETICS 4: Steve Pearce hit a game-winning grand slam in the 10th inning and Toronto won at home to complete a four-game sweep.

Oakland reliever Liam Hendriks (3-2) walked the bases loaded with two outs before Pearce hooked a 3-2 pitch down the left-field line.

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YANKEES 6, RAYS 5: Shortstop Adeiney Hechavarria and second baseman Tim Beckham watched Gary Sanchez’s playable grounder bounce between them on the left side of the infield for a tying single with two outs in the ninth inning and Brett Gardner homered leading off the 11th to give host New York it fourth straight win.

Gardner tripled to the left-center wall off Alex Colome leading off the ninth, but the closer appeared to pitch out of trouble. With the infield in, Clint Frazier hit a soft grounder to third and AL home run leader Aaron Judge flied to short right.

With Beckham shifted to the third-base side of second, Sanchez hit a two-hopper between Hechavarria and Beckham, but the two infielders looked at each other as the ball bounced into the outfield and Gardner came home. Didi Gregorius followed with an inning-ending grounder.

Gardner then homered, his career-high 18th, on a 1-1 pitch in the 11th from rookie Andrew Kittredge (0-1), who lost in his first big league decision. The Yankees are on their longest winning streak since a six-game spurt from June 7-12.

Aroldis Chapman (3-1) needed just 19 pitches to strike out four over two innings — including three in a row in the 11th — his longest outing since last year’s World Series.

INTERLEAGUE

CUBS 6, WHITE SOX 3: Kyle Schwarber homered twice and drove in four runs, and the visiting Cubs won at Chicago for their third consecutive victory.

Anthony Rizzo also connected and Jon Lester pitched seven effective innings as the Cubs improved to 11-2 since the All-Star break and increased their advantage over the Brewers to 11/2 games ahead of their series this weekend.


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