Oakland Athletics

In the second inning, Smith hit a solo shot against A's starter Josh Lindblom. Smith later added an RBI single. He also walked twice during the game. He scored three runs. Smith is hitting .285/.352/.451 in 144 at-bats. 

Reddick could be reinstated from the disabled list next week. Reddick, who was hitting .152 before going on the disabled list, believes his hitting woes could be strongly connected to his wrist discomfort.

Manager Bob Melvin wants Nakajima to play as many positions as possible in order to make him more versatile at the major-league level in the future. His 20-day rehab assignment is up Wednesday and the A's will make a decision on him at that time. Nakajima is batting .250 at Triple-A with five RBI over 40 at-bats. 

"The best pitching performance we've seen out of him to date," manager Bob Melvin said. "I think he just gained confidence as the game went along."

"I think this can be a jumping off point for him," reliever Sean Doolittle said. "That was pretty impressive."

It's not like Straily was doubting himself after a series of rocky starts since returning from the minors. He only backs up what the numbers say. "The last few times out, I walked people, hit people, hurt myself. I wasn't getting hit hard. I was hurting myself. The whole goal today was go out and fill up the strike zone."

Like I said on Wednesday's Fantasy Baseball Today, this is the real Dan Straily. He isn't the first high-upside hurler to have a rocky transition to the majors. He also wouldn't be the first to take off once he found his groove. With Brett Anderson potentially out another two months, I'm willing to ride the wave.

Coming into Wednesday's game, Norris was batting .135 (7 for 52) with one home run, two doubles, four RBI, five runs and seven walks in 16 May games.

Lowrie is considered day to day after X-rays came back negative Tuesday.

Jaso has four multi-hit games in May, but he's batting .243 (9 for 37) with one double, one RBI and six walks in 15 games this month.

Crisp hit two singles and a double during the game. He also stole his ninth base of the year. Crisp also walked, reaching base four times. He's hitting .274/.370/.513 in 117 at-bats.

Balfour earned his ninth save of the season as he struck out one in a perfect frame to protect Dan Straily's gem. He needed just 12 pitches, throwing seven for strikes. 

Balfour has earned saves in three straight and six of seven. He's 9 for 9 in save chances on the year with a solid 1.47 ERA. He's also struck out 20 over 18 1/3. 

The win ended a five-game losing streak for Milone (4-5). He takes a 3.47 ERA and a 49:12 K:BB ratio into a matchup with the Astros Friday.

The right-hander was charged with six hits and one walk, while strking out five. He actually lowered his ERA from 6.04 to 5.76. Parker has allowed three or more runs in five of his last six starts.

Parker (2-6) is slated to return to action Tuesday against the Giants. Parker is 0-1 with a 7.88 ERA in two career starts against San Francisco.

Colon improved to 4-2 on the year as he limited the Rangers to just two runs on six hits and two walks over seven solid innings. He threw 95 pitches and struck out three batters. His ERA is now at 4.31. 

Colon picked up his first win in May and first since improving to 3-0 on April 23 against Boston. Colon will look to make it two straight when he next takes the hill Sunday at Houston. 

Cespedes homered for the ninth time this season with two outs against Darvish to win it for the A's. He went 1 for 5 in the game with two strikeouts and is batting .211. 

Despite his low batting average, Cespedes has hit in seven of his last 10 games with three homers and four RBI over that span. He has 22 RBI on the year with 22 runs scored.