By: Eric He

AP photo: Oakland A’s starter Raul Alcantara fires a pitch at the Texas Rangers on Saturday night at the Ball Park in Arlington on the way to his first win of 2016

Raul Alcantara recorded his first major league win as the A’s crushed the Rangers 11-2 on the road on Saturday night.

Alcantara, in his third career start, pitched 5.2 innings, allowing two earned runs and striking out three. He had plenty of run support, as the A’s clubbed three homers — two of them 3-run shots — to put the game away early.

The first batter of the game, Joey Wendle, homered to set the tone. The A’s jumped out to a 4-0 lead by the second inning, and then Marcus Semien clubbed a 3-run big fly to left field in the fifth to give Oakland a 7-0 advantage.

Danny Valencia provided the A’s with their third homer of the night. The A’s lit up Rangers’ starter Yu Darvish, who gave a seven runs to tie a career-high. He was out dueled by the rookie Alcantara, who manager Bob Melvin said had to be confident.

“I know he feels good about the outing, and it gives you a lot of confidence going forward, knowing you can pitch against a lineup like this and have some success,” Melvin told MLB.com.

With both teams taking a game in this three-game set, the rubber match to decide the series will be Sunday at 12:05 PST. Ross Detwiler will take the mound for the A’s and he will oppose the Rangers’ Colby Lewis.