Athletics 8, Astros 2: Jeff Samardzija struck out 10 and took a shutout into the eighth inning and Josh Reddick hit a two-run homer as visiting Oakland defeated Houston in the opener of a three-game series.

Samardzija (6-10) allowed two runs and six hits while collecting double-digit strikeouts for the seventh time in his career. Josh Donaldson went 3-for-4 with three RBIs for Oakland, which pulled within a half-game of the American League West-leading Los Angeles Angels and maintained its comfortable lead atop the wild-card standings.

Chris Carter hit a two-run homer and Marwin Gonzalez had three hits for the Astros. Scott Feldman (7-10) gave up three runs and seven hits over seven innings to take the loss.

Donaldson opened the scoring in the third when he ripped a double into the left-field corner to score Alberto Callaspo, and Reddick tacked on two more with his 10th homer, a shot into the right-field seats in the fourth. The Astros finally broke through in the eighth, as Jose Altuve legged out an infield single and Carter followed with his 31sth homer into the right-field seats.

Tony Sipp walked all four batters he faced to start the ninth, including Coco Crisp with the bases loaded, and the Athletics broke it open from there. Donaldson pulled another double into the left-field corner to plate two more, and Derek Norris added a two-run single with two outs to cap the scoring.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Oakland LF Brandon Moss snapped an 0-for-19 skid with his bloop single in the fourth ahead of Reddick's two-run blast and added another single in his next at-bat. … Crisp went 0-for-4 to snap his six-game hitting streak. … Oakland improved to 50-12 when scoring first.