HOUSTON ASTROS' CARLOS CORREA (right) celebrates with Yuli Gurriel (10) after hitting a home run off Oakland Athletics' Daniel Mengden during the second inning of a baseball game Tuesday in Oakland, Calif.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — After muddling their way through the first two months of the season, the Los Angeles Dodgers are hitting their stride in June.

Joc Pederson, Max Muncy and Yasiel Puig homered off ageless wonder Bartolo Colon, and the defending NL champions broke loose for seven runs in the fourth inning to rout the last-place Texas Rangers 12-5 on Tuesday night and improve to 8-2 this month.

Los Angeles moved two games above .500 for the first time this season.

“Winning is contagious,” said Cody Bellinger, who reached base safely in four of five plate appearances. “When you’re winning, everything comes together.”

The Dodgers pounded out 16 hits in taking their second straight game.

“We’re taking a lot of good swings,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Colon, the 45-year-old right-hander, has allowed 19 homers this season. He recorded his 2,500th career strikeout against Muncy in the first.

Colon (3-4) got tagged for season highs in runs (eight) and hits (nine) over 3 1/3 innings after tossing at least five innings in 10 of 11 starts. He was trying to break a tie with Hall of Famer Juan Marichal for most wins by a Dominican-born pitcher — they both have 243.

“They took advantage of me. They got heated up good,” Colon said through a translator. “That’s what happened, so I couldn’t do (anything). They were very aggressive and I couldn’t hold them.”

The Rangers lost their season high-tying fifth in a row in their first visit to Dodger Stadium since 2015. They fell to 14-19 on the road, having lost four of their last five.

ASTROS 6, A’S 3

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — After Houston fell into a quick one-run hole, Evan Gattis appreciated how the Astros came right back swinging.

Fences-clearing swings.

“It’s like let ’em know we’re here, you know?” he said.

Gattis hit a three-run homer and drove in five runs, Carlos Correa returned from a four-game absence and homered on the first pitch he saw, and the Astros beat the Oakland Athletics 6-3 on Tuesday night for their sixth straight win.

Gattis has seven homers and 20 RBIs over his last 14 games.

“It’s been good for the last month,” he said. “It’s easy to lose sight of that when you have a couple games where it’s like 1 for 8 or 9 or something like that the last couple games in Texas. It’s good to kind of sustain it a little bit.”

Lance McCullers Jr. (8-3) struck out five over seven strong innings, allowing two runs and five hits while winning a second straight decision. He surrendered Stephen Piscotty’s sacrifice fly in the second and then kept Oakland’s powerful order in check.

Correa was back in the lineup at shortstop after missing a series sweep at Texas with soreness in his right side after leaving last Wednesday’s game against the Mariners following an at-bat in the seventh inning.