Sandy Alcantara made it look easy on the Fourth of July. The right-hander worked 8 innings, allowed just 1 run on 6 hits, struck out 8 and walked 1 on 100 pitches as the Miami Marlins handled the Oakland Athletics 7-2 at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento.
Alcantara was in command from the start. He scattered traffic without damage through the first two innings, then watched his offense build a lead he never had to surrender. He improved to 10-4 with a 4.08 ERA. The Marlins' bats gave him room to work, collecting 13 hits and three home runs on the night.
The scoring began in the third. Joe Mack homered to right to put Miami ahead, and later in the inning Otto Lopez homered to left, a 375-foot shot that brought Liam Hicks home and stretched the lead to 3-0. Lopez added to it in the fifth, doubling to left to score Javier Sanoja and make it 4-0. In the seventh, Kyle Stowers launched a 377-foot homer to left center, scoring Hicks again, pushing the margin to 6-0. Oakland got one back in the seventh when Henry Bolte scored on Jeff McNeil's sacrifice fly to center. Xavier Edwards singled to left in the ninth, scoring Stowers to make it 7-1, before a throwing error by Lopez allowed Carlos Cortes to score Oakland's second run.
Aaron Civale absorbed the loss for Oakland, lasting 4.2 innings and allowing 4 runs on 6 hits with 6 strikeouts and 2 walks. He fell to 5-6 with a 5.23 ERA. The Athletics managed 8 hits on the night but could not solve Alcantara until the late innings, when the outcome was long settled.
Lopez finished 3-for-5 with a home run, a double and 3 RBI, batting .338 on the season. Stowers went 2-for-4 with a home run and 2 RBI. Hicks was 3-for-5 with 2 runs scored. Civale is now 2 wins away from 50 career victories. Miami moved to 47-42 with the win. Oakland fell to 41-47.