Donaldson exits marathon with sore hamstring

OAKLAND -- A's third baseman Josh Donaldson exited Thursday's 3-2, 18-inning victory over the Yankees because of soreness in his right hamstring.

Donaldson said the injury started to act up in the top of the 15th while in the field. He was replaced at third base to start the 16th inning and watched the walk-off hit of Nate Freiman, who filled in for Donaldson as the A's cleanup man, from Oakland's clubhouse.

"Hopefully they caught it before it was too bad," Donaldson said. "I felt like if I had tried to accelerate or something that it could get bad."

Donaldson has played in all but two games this season for the A's, who kept Yoenis Cespedes and Coco Crisp out of the starting lineup for the second straight game Thursday, though Crisp entered as a pinch-hitter in the 15th inning to record two hits.

Donaldson owns a team-best .310 batting average, despite going 0-for-6 Thursday, with 19 doubles, and has scored 34 runs, second on the A's only to Crisp.

"I'm not the doctor, I don't know," Donaldson said in regard to when he'll return to the lineup. "We'll check it out tomorrow to see what the plan is."