Teng Kai-wei Shines in Relief as Astros Fall Short Against Athletics

Taipei: Houston Astros right-hander Teng Kai-wei made a notable return to Major League Baseball, striking out four batters over 1 2/3 scoreless innings against the Oakland Athletics on Sunday. This marked his first appearance in nearly a month. According to Focus Taiwan, Teng entered the game in the fifth inning with one out and a runner on first base, stepping in after the Athletics erased a six-run deficit to level the score at 6-6. The 27-year-old faced seven batters during his outing, allowing one hit and hitting one batter while delivering 28 pitches. His fastball reached a peak velocity of 94.3 miles per hour, and he secured four of his five outs via strikeouts. Teng's sweeper was particularly effective during his stint on the mound. He utilized the pitch 16 times, achieving seven swings and misses out of 10 attempts, resulting in a 70 percent whiff rate. Despite a hit-by-pitch and a wild pitch that advanced Athletics runners to second and third base, Teng concluded the fifth inning with a strikeout. He returned for a scoreless sixth inning, navigating around a double while adding two more strikeouts. Steven Okert took over for Teng and subsequently allowed a go-ahead solo home run to Max Muncy in the seventh inning, which ultimately led to Houston's narrow 7-6 defeat. Teng had been recalled from Triple-A on Friday, with his previous major league appearance occurring about a month ago before being optioned on July 26. During his time in Triple-A, Teng exclusively served as a reliever, recording a 3.48 ERA with 15 strikeouts and three walks over 10 1/3 innings. He is anticipated to continue contributing to Houston's bullpen. With this performance, Teng, who holds a 5-6 record in the majors, improved his ERA to 4.24. In other baseball action, the Texas Rangers defeated the Los Angeles Angels 5-3 on the same day, leaving the Astros tied with the Rangers at the top of the American League West Division. Meanwhile, Taiwanese infielder Lee Hao-yu had a commendable performance, recording two hits, including a double, in the Detroit Tigers' 11-7 road loss to the Kansas City Royals. Lee, batting second and starting at third base, went 2-for-5 with one RBI and scored twice. His performance coincided with the conclusion of MLB's three-day Players' Weekend, during which the Tigers shared their lineups on social media using players' nicknames. Lee was listed in Chinese as "Pit Bull." Over the three-game weekend, Lee went 4-for-11 with a double and a home run. The 23-year-old has maintained a .343 batting average, with a .425 on-base percentage and a .486 slugging percentage in 17 games this August. As of Sunday, he had struck out only three times in 35 at-bats for the month, a significant improvement after recording double-digit strikeout totals over the previous three months.