Spoiler alert: I think Kai-Wei Teng has hit the figurative wall. And the Astros seemingly agree, at least to some extent, with Teng on the way to Sugar Land in exchange for Miguel Ullola.
For the second time in his last three starts, the Tigers roughed up Teng in less than four innings. Frankly, not too much of a surprise considering his velocity was noticeably down compared to his season averages, around two mph for both his four-seam and sweeper. By the fourth inning, when he allowed all four of his earned runs (five total), his four-seam velocity had a sharp decline from 92.4 mph in the third to 90.7 mph. The workload, especially compared to past seasons, was starting to catch up to him. Optioning him to Sugar Land, albeit likely a brief trip, will hopefully give him a chance to rest a little bit.
Thankfully, the Astros didn’t have too many issues in scoring runs. Before Teng allowed four runs in the third, Houston quickly put together a 3-0 lead. Cam Smith’s two-run home run off of Framber Valdez in the second inning provided the first runs of the game, followed by Jose Altuve’s RBI groundout in the third.
Following Detroit’s four-run burst, Jeremy Peña would tie the game again with an RBI single in the fourth. Alas, the Tigers scored two more runs, one each in the fourth and fifth, to drive up their lead again to 6-4.
The score wouldn’t budge again until Christian Walker’s RBI single in the seventh cut the deficit to 6-5. But the lead, and the game, would change for good in the eighth inning, with the Astros scoring three runs to claim an 8-6 lead, all with two outs.
Another reason why this comeback effort happened in the first place was the bullpen, which limited the Tigers to only one run over the last 5.1 innings. Josh Hader closed it out, earning his sixth save, with an impressive 0.82 ERA since his activation off the IL. Thanks to the Mariners loss on Saturday, the Astros are now 1.5 games behind them for the division lead. Houston goes for their fifth straight series tomorrow afternoon.
Feature photo from Astros on X
*Did I dream it? Teng wanted to be a starter, now he blames fatigue.
*The Astros don’t know how to bunt. Who do we blame for it?
is this taiwanese for “joe likes to squeeze rocks”?
Teng has four years of concern left. Even if he can be a reliable back of the rotation starter or even a 3 guy. It probably is the time to roll him back into the pen and maybe into a one inning guy.
If he can get too 100 to 110 innings, maybe he can reach 140 next year. If injuries happen this year, it will probably allow Pecko to get his shot.
I think it’s mostly on personnel. Victor Rodriguez’s previous team, the ’25 Padres, was overall excellent at bunting.
Assuming Teng isn’t shut down and is back in the majors in a few weeks he seems like a good candidate for a piggyback role the rest of this year. He could stay on regular rest, remain stretched out but in a situation where 3 good innings is all that’s needed in most cases.
During this run of improved play by the Astros, I’ve noticed they have been rallying late in some games to take the lead and hold on to win. Something they weren’t doing for the first 2.5 months of the season. This is nice to see, and possibly a good sign going forward.
If you kind of read between the lines of our Player Development head/farm director. On Rome’s podcast he mentioned both Ullola and Pecko as possible next guys up for the pen and rotation. I wouldn’t be shocked if we see both over the next month.