OAKLAND, Calif. - As Travis Hafners drive carried toward the high wall in left-centre what had been a six-run lead for Oakland no longer seemed so safe anymore. The Athletics were able to catch their breath once Seth Smith jumped to make the catch to seal a 6-4 win over CC Sabathia and the New York Yankees on Tuesday night. "With the career hes had anytime he connects with the barrel its obviously going to be a scary moment," catcher Derek Norris said. "Hes got tremendous power and hes a monster, hes huge. Anytime a guy like that you hear a barrel you know it could be scary. Fortunately for us Seth made a great play and that good old marine layer made the ball go down a little bit." Norris homered and drove in four runs, Coco Crisp hit a leadoff homer and Bartolo Colon (8-2) pitched six scoreless innings to lead the As to their eighth win in 11 games. Oakland (39-27) has its best record after 66 games since 1992. It didnt come easy after the Yankees scored twice in the eighth and twice in the ninth to bring up Hafner as the tying run with a man on first. His drive off Grant Balfour through the thick night air in Oakland died at the fence. "To me it was never going out," said Balfour, who recorded his 16th save in as many chances. "It was just a matter of does it go off the wall a little too high and then its a double. That was the only thing I was worried about. I was never worried about it going out." Sabathia (6-5) allowed six runs and eight hits in six innings in his homecoming start in front of many fans that came from his hometown of nearby Vallejo to watch him pitch. "He made mistakes, and you cant make mistakes at this level," manager Joe Girardi said. "If you do, sometimes youre going to get away with them but most of the time youre not." The As did get some bad news when star outfielder Yoenis Cespedes had to leave the game after the second inning with tightness in his left hamstring. He is day to day. Cespedes appeared to hurt himself running out a groundout in the first inning. Crisp also played through a sore right heel. Colon pitched out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the first inning and then didnt allow another runner to reach second base. He allowed three hits and a season-high four walks to improve to 5-0 with a 0.75 ERA over his past five starts. "Hes been unbelievable really for us," Balfour said. "Hes a veteran guy and hes leading the way for us. Hes showing the younger guys, Hey Im out here and Im still doing it. Just watching the way he goes about his business hes a true professional. Hes been doing it a long time and is very successful at doing it. Were lucky to have him." Norris was coming off an 0-for-13 road trip and was hitless in 14 straight at-bats before delivering the most productive game of his career. He blooped a two-out RBI double down the right-field line in the second that scored Josh Reddick from first when Lyle Overbay misplayed the ball in his fourth career game in right field. Norris then added the big blow in the fourth inning when he drove a first pitch from Sabathia over the wall in left-centre for a three-run homer that made it 5-0 and gave Norris a career-high four RBIs. The As added a run in the sixth when Josh Donaldson doubled and scored on a wild pitch. The poor outing left Sabathia with a 5.30 ERA in 14 career starts in Oakland. Thats his highest ERA in any active American League park. "The changeup was up and flat, the two-seamer I was yanking down the middle," Sabathia said. "It was just a combination of everything not being sharp." New York scored twice in the eighth off Jerry Blevins and could have had more except right fielder Josh Reddick made a nice running catch to track down a liner toward the line by Travis Hafner. Mark Teixeira added a two-run single in the ninth before Smiths catch ended it. The Yankees threatened in the first inning when they took advantage of two rare walks by Colon to load the bases with one out. But Colon escaped the threat with no damage when he got Kevin Youkilis to foul out to first base and Lyle Overbay to foul out to left field. "We got to make him pay," Overbay said. "We let him off the hook and that kind of gave him some momentum and we couldnt get it back." New York then found itself trailing two pitches into the bottom half when Crisp his third leadoff homer of the season and 11th in his career to make it 1-0. NOTES: The national anthem was played by the marching band from Solano Middle School, the school Sabathia attended for junior high. ... Girardi said he hopes SS Derek Jeter will be cleared Thursday by doctors to begin full rehab of his injured ankle. ... Dan Straily (3-2, 4.67 ERA) pitches for Oakland in the second game of the series against Phil Hughes (3-4, 4.80). Hydro Flask Sale . -- The St. Johns IceCaps weathered a wild first period with the help of goaltender Jussi Olkinuora, before finding offensive inroads in the second. Discount Hydro Flask Cheap . However, he did make them miss him a little less. Cundiff, who had the unenviable job of replacing Dawson last season, agreed Thursday to a one-year, $1. http://www.discounthydroflaskcheap.com/ .C. -- Chris Thorburn thinks one of the reasons the Winnipeg Jets have been successful under new coach Paul Maurice is that theyre playing together as a team. Hydro Flask Clearance . Parker had 26 points and eight assists and San Antonio beat Toronto 112-99 Monday night. "We won that game because of Tony Parkers aggressiveness," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "His juice; his aggression all night long. Cheap Hydro Flask Sale . They hope to persuade the other team owners and commissioner Roger Goodell to put pressure on Redskins owner Daniel Snyder to drop the nickname they find offensive. "Given the way the meeting transpired," Ray Halbritter, an Oneida representative and leader of the "Change the Mascot Campaign," said Wednesday, "it became somewhat evident they were defending the continued use of the name. RIO DE JANEIRO -- Karch Kiralys eyes always stay up, hands clasped behind his back, as he deliberately moves around the court checking in with each of his players. During Olympic training at Rios Navy School, he stands atop the referee stand, watching intently.Kiraly has done seemingly everything in a remarkable volleyball career, the only player, man or woman, to win Olympic gold medals in both indoor and beach volleyball. He captured team gold in 1984 and `88 and then became a beach champion at the 1996 Atlanta Games.Now, he is looking to cap his golden Triple Crown by guiding the U.S. women to their first Olympic title this month in Rio de Janeiro.The man named the international governing bodys greatest player of the 20th century surprised himself by how quickly he took to coaching. Rarely does such a decorated player emerge as an elite-level coach. Often, the best athletes might have trouble relating to those who lack the ability and drive that made them so successful.When people asked Kiraly if he thought he would one day coach, his answer had typically been no.I could foresee myself having some frustration in trying to help people do what I tried to do on the court and maybe having some challenges in trying to transmit that, he said. I think if you had asked me in 2004, `Karch, youre going to be coaching the USA womens team from 2013 through 2016, I would have said: `What are you talking about? Youre a little batty right now.He has signed on for another four years leading up to Tokyo in 2020, too. USA Volleyball CEO Doug Beal, Kiralys former coach, believes he has the perfect person running the program. Kiraly -- along with China coach and former U.S. coach Jenny Lang Ping -- would become the first person to win gold as a player and coach.Its very unusual for a player that was as exceptional as he was to be able to transition that into being as special a coach as he clearly is, Beal said. He just continues to amaze me and lots of other people with just how good he is and how he sort of sacrifices his own ego, his own personality, to do whats best for the team.The 55-year-old Kiraly started down the coaching path when his now-grown sons, Kristian and Kory, were just kids playing at St. Margarets Episcopal School in San Juan Capistrano, California.They had a really rough season. They lost every match they played. I think they lost 31 matches -- 0-31 -- but not only did they lose every match, they lost every set of every match, so they went something like 0-93 in that season, he recalled.At some point my wife said, `Youve got to help them out here, Karch youve got to get in there and just help them taste a little bit of success.Jannas urging was all it took. Kiraly cleared the idea with his sons, they established some guidelines -- Im not dad when were there -- then went about turning the program right around.Soon, St. Margarets had won its very first set and they went nuts liked theyd just won the national championship, Kiraly said.dddddddddddd It was awesome.The team went from last in the league to a third-place finish and a playoff berth, eventually earning a spot in the championship game of the small-school division. His boys tale of triumph with their teammates still brings Kiraly to tears.That was one of my early, proud coaching moments that they came out and won, he said. It was awesome and that kind of hooked me on coaching.Both of his sons, 18 months apart, graduated from their dads alma mater, UCLA, and are now working.I got to see firsthand how hard he worked to help his players -- countless late nights after he got home -- all for the love of the sport and deep caring for the players with a drive to bring them up to the highest standard possible, Kristian said. That applies to both the national team and St. Margarets.The family hopes to celebrate much more if all goes right in Rio for the man who has been a champion in everything he has done: from college to the Olympics to professional crowns in Italy and his storied career on the sand. Not that youd ever know it just chatting with him.Everything he does is so sincere, Kiralys 1988 Olympic coach and close confidante, Marv Dunphy, said Friday after U.S. training at Rios Navy School People know when youre real. The best coaches are authentic. The level of how much he cares is off the charts.Kiralys players at times marvel at his blend of credentials and humility. U.S. womens captain Christa Dietzen so appreciates his patience, more than any of her other coaches along the way.It shows within our huddles in timeout how calm, cool and collected Karch is, Dietzen said. Sure, when were letting free balls drop or something like that, hes going to let us know about it. Thats when we see his inner competitiveness come out, which he had his entire career as a player. And he continues to find that balance between the two.Taking over from friend Hugh McCutcheon after the Americans disappointing silver-medal finish four years ago in London as the favorite for gold, Kiraly has built a national team program his way. The players conducted valuable peer reviews on each other. Kiraly fundraised specifically to bring Megan Easys young son and husband on some road trips. He has embraced the statistics-crunching analytical side of the sport.There are some things that we care a lot about, and my hope would be that somebody might come into our gym for five or 10 minutes and see those pretty quickly, Kiraly said. If theyre not very apparent then we still have lots and lots of work to do. But there are some things we care deeply about, and one of them is this idea of family -- not replacing their first family but being a second family. ' ' '