I was away in New York this weekend, flying out on the redeye Friday night and returning Sunday night and spending all the time in between celebrating a friend's one and only 30th birthday, so I did not see the A's–Astros series on the television. I can read a box score, though!

• The Astros are a soft touch for strikeouts, but Dan Straily's 11 on Friday is pretty impressive, especially with zero walks.
• I wonder whether Josh Reddick is focusing more on the stolen base this year or if the spots have just been there for him early. He stole 12 times last season (11 successful), but he's got three in seven games so far this year.
• No walks, two strikeouts, and the minimum quality start possible are pretty much what you expect from Bartolo Colon.
• Ryan Cook throwing nine strikes in 10 pitches is awfully nice. If he wants to do that all year, I'll stop whining about his control.
• Coco Crisp went nuts in this series, didn't he? Four doubles and three homers? He did get caught stealing, which is a little surprising, mainly because it's always surprising when he does that. Anyway, if Coco faced Astros pitching all the time, he'd be the MVP. Then again, so would everyone else.
• It's interesting to see early how strict or not-strict Melvin is going to be with his platoon situations. Chris Young started Sunday against the righty Lucas Harrell and hit a homer. Also with Yoenis Cespedes getting a day off, Melvin went with Seth Smith in left field rather than Coco Crisp or Young, preferring to play Crisp at the DH spot. I'm not entirely sure that's a good use of Crisp's talents, but maybe putting him in left with Young in center is a recipe for more "demigod" comments like last year, and maybe Young in left just isn't something Melvin thinks can work on any regular basis. (Young has played five professional games in a corner: one in 2005 in Double-A, three in 2002 in Rookie ball, and one last Thursday against the Mariners.)