OAKLAND – Josh Reddick remains hopeful that his sore right wrist will recover through proper rest and rehab. If not, surgery is a realistic option, the A’s right fielder said Monday.

Reddick was placed on the 15-day disabled list last Wednesday one day after pain-killing shots failed to alleviate the discomfort.

“I’m not going to say, ‘OK, I need surgery,’ but I’m also not going to rule that out,” Reddick said before Monday’s game against the AL West-leading Texas Rangers at the Coliseum. “Obviously, I don’t want that, but it’s something that’s definitely not out of the picture right now.”

Reddick underwent surgery on his left wrist after the 2011 season. That recovery took two months, he said. Unlike last time, Reddick said there isn’t a tear involved in his wrist this time around.

For now, Reddick is taking a wait-and-see approach, with the next step in the process his swinging the bat and seeing how his wrist responds. He expects that to take place in a week or so.

Manager Bob Melvin also is optimistic about Reddick returning sooner rather than later.

“The strengthening he’s doing now and not being able to pick up a bat, I don’t think you rule anything out at this point,” Melvin said, “but I would like to think that’s the last resort.”

The A’s are down three outfielders right now, with Coco Crisp and Chris Young also on the disabled list. Crisp and Young are eligible to return Wednesday.

Reddick is batting .152 in 29 games this season, with one home run and 14 RBI. Last season, he hit .242, with 32 home runs and 85 RBI.

Grant Balfour has rung up a save in every game he’s pitched this month.

Before Saturday night, that meant both of them. Pitching for the first time in six days, Balfour put two men on but pitched out of trouble to secure the A’s 4-3 win over Seattle that brought a five-game losing streak to an end.

And if there is anything that underscores the problems the A’s are having these days, it’s that they had not been finding chances for Balfour to do his ninth-inning thing.

He hasn’t blown a save all year, but he only has six chances. Either the A’s are behind late, which has been the problem in recent days, or they’ve had more than a three-run lead, which was the case much of the time in a 16-12 April.

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There’s an old adage in baseball that the batter who is a biggest threat to a pitcher is someone who’s spent some time catching that pitcher.

It played out Friday night when John Jaso, who caught Hisashi Iwakuma last year in Seattle, had two of Oakland’s four hits off Iwakuma in seven innings in a 6-3 Seattle win.

Jaso doesn’t care about the numbers. He said it doesn’t work that way, at least when he is the catcher involved.

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As most of you know, before I took over covering the A’s this year, I used to cover the Mariners.

Before covering the Mariners, I covered the A’s way back when, but that’s not the issue in front of us.

The thing is, there were plenty of friendly faces when I made a quick pass through the Seattle clubhouse before Friday’s series opener.

Guess what they wanted to talk about? The home run that was denied the A’s Adam Rosales Wednesday night in Cleveland when video replay inexplicably went against him in the form of acting crew chief Angel Hernandez.

Now the Mariners didn’t want to go on the record. They don’t want to pay a penalty for speaking truth to power. There is an uneasy coexistence between players and umpires, and tilting the balance isn’t productive.

But they were plenty willing to talk about the play, which some of them saw live on a flight back to Seattle from Toronto.

“Man, what was that all about?’’ one player said. “That call was as bad as I’ve ever seen.’’

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The one thing A’s watchers can take out of this week’s series sweep at the hands of the Indians is that Oakland players didn’t blame Thursday’s loss on Wednesday’s botched homer call by umpire Angel Hernandez.

The one, the A’s said, had nothing to do with the other.

And win or lose, that’s how it should be. The baseball season is too long and to unrelenting with games virtually every day to spent too much mental work on one bad result.

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At some level A’s manager Bob Melvin seems to have made a wise choice in having John Jaso get most of the starts in the leadoff spot with Coco Crisp on the disabled list.

You want the leadoff hitter to get one base, and Jaso has done that. His on-base percentage coming into Tuesday when in the leadoff slot was .462. He doesn’t have great speed, but getting on is the name of the game.

Jaso has been all over the lineup the last season-plus in Seattle and Oakland, and he doesn’t change his work habits just because of where he’s situated in the lineup.

Except …

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For most starting pitchers, the pregame ritual on the road is the same.

You take the team bus to the ballpark, meaning you’re the last man to get to the clubhouse. You watch some video, go over notes on your opponent and sit down for a conference with the pitching coach and catcher.

Maybe in the downtime you might fiddle around on the iPad or plug the headphones into the iPod and lose yourself in some tunes.

A’s right-hander A.J. Griffin is not from that mold. Griffin spent the better part of an hour in the visitor’s clubhouse in Yankee Stadium being musical, and it seemed as if the Yankees were the furthest thing on his mind.

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It’s Dan Brown (@mercbrownie) with a guest post for John Hickey:

Delighted as Brandon Moss was by his 19^th-inning walk-off homer in the wee hours Tuesday morning, he was no better than the sixth happiest creature from his own household.

Moss’ entire family – wife, sister, two kids and miniature pinscher named Luger – had been waiting in the car for more than 4 hours waiting … and waiting … for the dang game to end.

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Hey, everyone. It’s Dan Brown (@mercbrownie) filling in for John Hickey.

First, a quick injury roundup because the A’s 19-inning victory on Monday night took its toll.

Outfielders Coco Crisp (hamstring) and Chris Young (quadriceps) are out of the lineup against the Angels tonight and could be out a few days. Manager Bob Melvin said the A’s are in wait-and-see mode on both players with the hope that they can avoid the disabled list.

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Darren Sabedra here closing out the day as a fill-in for John Hickey. I just filed my final-version game story and thought I’d drop a few notes here before I head to the parking lott.

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