OAKLAND – Billy Burns came out to run and get loose before Tuesday’s game when he heard a familiar voice call out to him.
It was Astros starter Scott Kazmir, out on the Coliseum turf himself, getting ready for his first start against the team that shipped him to Houston before the trade deadline.
“He was kind of jawing at me pregame saying, ‘You better not swing at the first pitch,’ and stuff like that,’” Burns said with a smile.
This was a game billed as a duel between Kazmir and Sonny Gray, the duo that guided Oakland’s rotation together until Kazmir was traded July 23.