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HOUSTON -- Two days after his 40th birthday, Bartolo Colon pitched with youthful verve. Colon struck out a season-high nine in seven scoreless innings, and the Oakland Athletics completed a sweep of the Houston Astros with a 6-2 win. Oaklands Nate Freiman, who was with the Astros in spring training as a Rule 5 selection, homered, doubled and drove in three runs as the As improved to 9-0 against the Astros this season. Colon, who was hitting 94-95 mph on the radar throughout the game, said through an interpreter that the way he pitches, sometimes he likes to change his velocity. Oakland manager Bob Melvin said Colons velocity surprised him. "Every now and then you could see him peek up there and see what the velocity was," Melvin said. "There are certain things that we can see when he knows that hes got his velocity, a little something that he does differently. Really for a guy wholl touch 93 and youll see a 94 sprinkled in every now and then, he hovered around 94 and hit 95. So 40 years old, pretty impressive." Colon (5-2) won his second straight start, scattering nine hits. He worked seven innings for the second straight start and for the fourth time in 10 starts this season. Colon improved to 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA in his three starts against the Astros this season and 4-0 with a 2.53 ERA against the AL West. Melvin thought Colon was economical with his pitches despite the hits. "He knows how to make a pitch when he needs to and I thought his stuff actually was as good today as weve seen all year," Melvin said. "There are certain games where he knows that he has the velocity and when he can go to that, and there are certain games where he pitches a little differently. That all comes with experience and knowing yourself very well." Freiman said he has been working in the batting cages and doing everything he can to be ready for when he is called upon to play. "Its something that Im excited to learn how to be a role player on this team," Freiman said. "Right now that role is to get an occasional start against left-handed starters." Dating to 2007, Oakland has won 11 straight against Houston, tied for the third longest winning streak against one team in As history. "Right now if you were to look you would say, yes, they have our number," Houston manager Bo Porter said. "Theyve beat us nine times in nine tries and today they were just better than us." The Astros are 14-36 in their first year in the AL, their worst 50-game start in club history. After leaving runners on third in two of the first three innings, Oakland sent nine batter to the plate in a five-run fourth against Dallas Keuchel (1-2). Yoenis Cespedes led off by reaching second base on an error by second baseman Jose Altuve. Josh Donaldson followed with an RBI single up the middle. After Jed Lowrie singled, Seth Smith had a run-scoring double and Freiman made it 4-0 with another double. Crisp added a two-out RBI single. Freiman made it 6-0 with a home run to centre field with one out in the in sixth. J.D. Martinez had a one-out double off reliever Ryan Cook in the eighth and Chris Carter hit a sacrifice fly to cut it to 6-2 but that was all Houston would get. Keuchel went six innings, giving up six runs -- four earned -- and a season-high nine hits. He struck out four. "I think it was a mixture between me not locating and they taking advantage of it," Keuchel said. "Throw away that fourth inning and its a 1-0 ballgame. I felt good today, but give credit to them." Jason Castro had a career-high four hits and went 10 for 12 in the series for Houston. Castro became the first Astros player since Ty Wigginton in 2008 to have three consecutive games of at least three hits. "I know my strengths, and part of this process is trying to match yourself up with whoever youre facing," Castro said. "Its an in-game evolution where youre always making adjustments, and Im feeling pretty comfortable with making those adjustments on the fly right now." NOTES: Oakland OF Josh Reddick will begin a rehab assignment Monday at Class-A Stockton, Melvin said. Reddick has been on the disabled list since May 8 with a sprained right wrist. . Lowrie started at second base Sunday after being out of the starting lineup the previous three games after being hit by a pitch on his right foot Tuesday. . Houston RHP Bud Norris will take the mound Monday against Colorado RHP Jhoulys Chacin. Norris has left each of his last two starts with back spasms. . Oakland will send RHP Dan Straily to the mound Monday to begin the Bay Area Series against the San Francisco Giants, who will counter with LHP Madison Bumgarner. Chiefs Jerseys China . 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"I worked my entire life for it, and it has been taken away from me in one afternoon by a doctor I didnt know," said Troicki, whose ranking peaked at No. The BCCI remains hopeful Indias Supreme Court will take a considered decision on the Lodha Committees latest proposal to disqualify all office bearers in the board and state associations if they fail to fulfill the eligibility criteria. A few of the BCCIs top office bearers and officials said the board will not change its stance, but was happy to sit with the committee and have a dialogue to find a solution to the long-standing feud.The latest suggestions were a part of the committees third status report, which was submitted in the court on November 18. The committee has told the court that despite clear timelines in place to implement the recommendations that were approved by the court in its July 18 judgement, neither the BCCI nor the state associations have obeyed the order, and have continued to be negligent.One reason for the BCCIs optimism was because the court had earlier refrained from approving a proposal of the committee to supersede the top brass of the board.In an order on October 21, the court noted that although it had found substance in the status report, it said at this stage it was refraining from approving the committees suggestion to supersede the office bearers because the board had said in a submission to the court that it would make every genuine effort to persuade the state associations to comply with the recommendations.The BCCI maintains it has done so in the interim. The committee wants us to implement all the recommendations in toto or wants all the office bearers to go, a senior board office bearer said. But no one understands that the BCCI has already accepted nearly 75% of the recommendations, most of those being already put into practice.The board, however, has consistently opposed certain key reforms such as the age cap of 70 years for board officials, the tenure cap of nine years with cooling-off periods in between, and the one-state-one-vote policy, among others.Thakur and Shirke had been asked to submit written undertakings to the court stating the board would unequivocally implement the order of October 21, and then meet with thhe Lodha Committee.dddddddddddd. The October 21 order had limited the financial freedom of the BCCI and had also directed the board not to disburse any funds to state associations until they complied unreservedly with the recommendations.In their affidavits, both Thakur and Shirke pointed out that board members had voted against adopting all the recommendations of the committee at the BCCI special general meeting on October 1. It is understood that committee did not feel it necessary to meet the BCCIs top office bearers after that, considering they had already stated the board would not comply with the court order.However the BCCIs reading of the situation is different. To ensure that cricket runs smoothly, the court had asked the committee to appoint an auditor as soon as possible, the office bearer said. No auditor has been appointed so far. The committee was also asked to set a threshold limit for various financial transactions the BCCI gets into. No threshold limit has been given. All our major decisions have been put on hold.The BCCI also questioned why the committee had proposed retired bureaucrat and former home secretary GK Pillai as an observer to look after the governance of the board. The committee suggested Pillai could also approve the various contractual obligations of the board in the future.On the one hand the committee says there should not be any government officials [working as an office bearer or official]. On what basis did they then pick GK Pillai? Was there a process? the office bearer said. Incidentally the committee has never imposed any restrictions on former civil servants, which Pillai is.A top BCCI official said that an adverse court decision against the board was not likely to affect the ongoing Test series between India and England. Already the court has approved expenses for those Test matches till December 5. For the remaining matches, we will have to wait and see what the court says, the official said. ' ' '