Smith, Teng keep rolling despite Astros' extra-inning loss to Brewers

HOUSTON -- Kai-Wei Teng continued to give the Astros consistent starts, while Cam Smith kept up his hot hitting on Friday night.

Teng threw well over five innings and Smith had two hits, including a home run, in Houston’s 5-4 loss in 10 innings to the Brewers at Daikin Park.

Teng allowed three runs on three hits with four walks and a season-high-tying seven strikeouts.

“Good stuff. Seven punchouts. Sweeper was really good,” Houston manager Joe Espada said. “Pitch count crept up because of the four walks. But again, another strong outing. He was really good.”

The right-hander has yielded three runs or fewer in each of his five starts this season, and has gone at least five innings in each of his last three starts after beginning the season in the bullpen.

Teng had his scoreless-innings streak snapped at 13 on David Hamilton’s solo home run to the Crawford Boxes in left to lead off the third inning. He hadn’t allowed a run since giving up three in the fourth inning on May 10 at the Reds.

Starting the season with 11 appearances out of the bullpen, Teng allowed four runs over 16 2/3 innings. In his five starts, he has a 3.27 ERA with 23 strikeouts and a .221 opponent batting average.

Teng mixed it up on Friday, throwing 32 sweepers, 21 four-seam fastballs, 16 sinkers and 12 changeups out of his 91 pitches, but he had the most success on the sweeper -- with six strikeouts and eight of his 13 whiffs coming on the pitch.

Despite the success, Teng was not happy with his lack of efficiency.

“I think my pitch count was a little too high during the whole outing,” Teng said through an interpreter. “During the fifth inning, my command was a little bit off.”

He ran into trouble in the fifth, surrendering a two-run homer to Jackson Chourio off the sweeper.

“I would say it was a miss for me,” Teng said. “I was behind in the count and I was trying to get a strike at that moment, but the ball didn’t have great movement at that moment. It went a little bit up and in.”

Smith sparks offense

Smith has turned things around over the last two weeks after a slow start to the season.

On Friday, he hit a Statcast-projected 419-foot home run to left-center in the second, his sixth of the season, and added an RBI double in Houston’s three-run fourth.

Jake Meyers hit an RBI double and Nick Allen had a sacrifice fly in the inning to give the Astros a 4-1 lead.

“We’ve always been an offense-driven team, and I think that’s a big part of it,” Smith said. “For me to keep getting opportunities to do big things for this ballclub offensively is huge.”

Smith has had a hit in eight of his last nine games and is 11-for-33 over that span with two doubles, two home runs and a 1.010 OPS.

“I can’t really point out anything,” Smith said of his recent surge. “Just more opportunities.”

Smith had a chance to tie it in the 10th, but Trevor Megill struck him out to end the game.

Despite the result, Espada said Smith’s confidence was evident.

“Even that swing there with Megill, you just could see how the contact point is right on cue,” Espada said. “He is catching stuff right in front. He’s on time. He thought he was the right guy for that spot. I had a really good feeling, the way he’s swinging and how confident he is. … He wants those moments. He wants those at-bats.”

Espada said he liked the fight in the Astros on Friday night.

They had chances, loading the bases in the ninth with one out, but they were unable to get the winning run across.

“It’s not necessarily easy to flush,” Smith said. “I felt like we had that one in our hands. I feel like we put together good at-bats, no matter who is on the other side of the field. We saw today that we swung pretty good.”