Miami Marlins build early lead, keep adding on to beat San Francisco Giants

Liam Hicks and Connor Norby smacked home runs and Kyle Stowers, Xavier Edwards and Otto Lopez collected three hits apiece as the Miami Marlins opened a six-game California swing with a 9-4 romp over the San Francisco Giants on Friday night.

Benefitting from a season-high-tying 16 hits of support, Sandy Alcantara (3-2) snapped a three-game personal winless streak with six comfortable innings, helping the Marlins win for the fourth time in their last five games.

All 108 pitches Alcantara threw were with a lead after the Marlins scored three times off Giants starter Adrian Houser (0-3) in the first inning.

Hicks’ homer, his fifth of the season, came five batters into the game and delivered the second and third runs of the night. Doubles by Jakob Marsee and Edwards plated the first run.

Miami added single runs in the second and third on an RBI single by Graham Pauley and sacrifice fly by Hicks, respectively, then broke the game open in the fourth on Norby’s third homer of the season, a three-run shot.

The visitors completed their scoring in the sixth on an RBI single by Lopez.

Houser was pulled after four innings, having allowed eight runs and 11 hits. He walked one and struck out three.

Down 8-0, the Giants finally got to Alcantara in the fifth, scoring three times on an RBI single by Drew Gilbert, a run-scoring double by Eric Haase and an RBI single by Luis Arraez.

Alcantara completed six innings, charged with three runs on nine hits. He walked one and struck out four.

The game’s only run of the final three innings came on a Jung Hoo Lee solo home run, his second of the year, beyond the right field wall in the eighth.

Hicks and Norby finished with three RBIs apiece, while Stowers and Owen Caissie scored twice each and Pauley added two hits. Miami’s nine runs were one shy of its season-high.

Arraez and Lee had three hits apiece for the Giants, who tallied 11 hits but lost their second straight.