Scott Kazmir was the Houston Astros' big pitching acquisition prior to the MLB trade deadline, and make no mistake, he was a big acquisition.
Kazmir had been great this year for Oakland, was a particularly a thorn in the side of the Texas Rangers with an ERA just a tick above 1.00 in his three starts with the A's against the Rangers.
His first outing with his hometown Astros was similarly great, but his first in an Astros uniform against his new intrastate rival? Not so much.
Kazmir allowed three first-inning runs to the Rangers, who trotted out a B-team lineup, of sorts, featuring guys like Ryan Strausborger, Ryan Rua and Adam Rosales, not to mention Chris Gimenez behind the plate.
It didn't shape up to be a big night for the Rangers' offense, and it wasn't a huge one. But it was big enough as the Rangers scored all of their runs in the first two innings and held on to sweep the first-place Astros to pull within two games of the Wild Card race and just five games out of the division lead.
