NEW YORK — Once again, the box score for James Paxton looked ugly after three outs. The eye test told Yankees manager Aaron Boone something different.

"I thought he threw the snot out of the ball in the first inning," he said.

Gleyber Torres wiped up Paxton's mess with a grand slam, and the hard-throwing left-hander cruised after that to help New York three-hit the slumping Boston Red Sox in a 4-2 victory Friday night.

Red Sox slugger J.D. Martinez hit a two-run homer during yet another rocky first by Paxton, but Torres bailed him out with his shot off Eduardo Rodriguez (13-5). Paxton (6-6) struck out the side in the second and completed six innings on 100 pitches, allowing two hits and two runs with six strikeouts.

"That was huge to get those four runs, put us back on top," Paxton said. "Try to lock it down from there."