As Adam Oller settled into his third MLB start on Friday night against the Texas Rangers, a familiar face was in the opposite dugout.
Oller’s former high school teammate, Glen Otto, was making the first start of his own major-league career against the Athletics after being called up from the Triple-A Round Rock Express on Thursday.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
The odds of such a meeting are slim, but fate was working in the friends’ favor as they pitched from the same mound at Oakland Coliseum in the opening matchup of the three-game series, which the A's lost 8-1. During an event at their old high school during the offseason, the pair hoped for the moment despite not knowing if they would be on their respective big-league rosters.
“It was kind of crazy,” Oller told reporters after the game. “I saw [Otto] in the offseason when we went to an alumni thing, and I hadn’t talked to him a whole lot up until that point, just because we live in different areas in Houston now and recruiters are kind of taking us in different paths.
“But it was nice seeing him out there and getting the chance to come up, and he threw very well … [At the alumni event] we were kind of talking about hopefully we’d see each other. I don’t think it’s very often that you have a guy you went to high school with facing off against each other.”
Oller and Otto both graduated from Concordia Lutheran High School in Tomball, Texas, in 2013 and 2014, respectively. They are two of six MLB players to come from the school.
Otto fared better than his old teammate on Friday, allowing one run over five innings and striking out five. He gave up just two hits to the A’s -- all Oakland would be able to muster across nine innings -- and earned the win in his debut, while Oller is 0-2 after his first three MLB starts.
Oller gave up five earned runs on five hits, including two home runs, which all came during the second inning. He went on to pitch five total frames, striking out two and walking two.
The A’s lone run came in the fourth inning courtesy of a pair of back-to-back, two-out doubles from Sean Murphy and Seth Brown. Murphy continued his hot start to the season and became the first Oakland player with seven-plus doubles in the team’s first 15 games of the season since Mark Ellis in 2003.
RELATED: Murphy's well-rounded play, leadership role inspires confidence
Although Oller is still looking to pull things together for his first career win, he looked sharp in all but one inning on Friday. Still, he was able to be happy for his former teammate despite the A’s loss.
Athletics
Find the latest Athletics news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Bay Area and California.
“It would have been nice if the game had gone a different way, but [Otto] threw the ball well tonight, so good for him,” Oller said.