HOUSTON -- There were certainly bigger offseason acquisitions for the Astros, whose winter centered around adding pitching depth. No signing made more headlines than Japanese star Tatsuya Imai, who so far has fallen flat, and the three-team trade for Mike Burrows was seen as a solid move to get a young arm with five years of control remaining.
The trade the Astros made with the Giants to acquire right-hander Kai-Wei Teng a couple of weeks before Spring Training had less fanfare, but has proven so far to be a strong under-the-radar move. Teng excelled as a bullpen arm in the first month-plus of the season and has moved seamlessly into Houston’s six-man rotation, which has been tested by injury since the first two weeks of the season.
Teng continued to make his case as perhaps Houston’s best offseason acquisition by throwing five scoreless innings, allowing two singles, and the Astros clubbed a season-high-tying four home runs to beat the Rangers, 4-1, on Saturday night at Daikin Park. Teng has a 2.61 ERA and a 1.10 WHIP in 31 innings.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for that guy,” said Astros first baseman Christian Walker, who clubbed one of Houston’s four homers off Jacob deGrom. “Whenver you need him, whatever responsibility we need, he comes through -- whether it’s a few innings out of the ‘pen or make a spot start here or there against a good lineup. That’s impressive. He’s been A-plus for us.”
Teng, making his third start of the season, pitched around four walks and struck out seven batters. Astros starters Spencer Arrighetti (7 1/3 innings) and Teng have combined to throw 12 1/3 scoreless innings in the first two games of the series against Texas -- the first time this season Houston has had back-to-back scoreless starts.
Teng struck out the first two batters he faced swinging and wound up with 11 swings-and-misses, including six on the sweeper, which he threw the most amongst his five-pitch arsenal.
“It definitely helps a lot being able to get some strikeouts in the very first inning,” he said. “It definitely helped me a lot, helped me settle down. It’s the first inning, so it kind of offset the tone for the game. I just tried to get ahead of the count and stay aggressive and attack the zone and did it good.”
Jose Altuve began the first inning with his 42nd career leadoff homer, giving him 38 career regular-season homers against the Rangers, which is the most he’s hit against any team in his career. Yordan Alvarez crushed his team-leading 15th homer of the season two batters later.
Altuve left the game after grounding into a double play in the eighth inning while holding his left side and is set to get an MRI on Sunday.
The solo homer barrage continued when Walker led off the fourth inning with his 11th, and rookie Zach Cole hit a solo homer to right field with two outs in the inning for a 4-0 Houston lead. The four homers allowed tied the career high for deGrom. He previously gave up four against the Cardinals on July 7, 2017.
Teng, acquired in a January trade from the Giants, began the season in the bullpen before making his first start of the season April 28 at Baltimore. He’s now started consecutive games for the first time this season and threw a season-high 76 pitches on Saturday. Last year, he pitched eight games last year for the Giants, starting seven.
“As a reliever, I tried to go as deep as we can to help save the bullpen, and today being a starter, it’s the same mindset,” Teng said. “I just tried to go as deep as I can and use the least pitches and get the most outs, and it really turned out great today.”
Teng was one of seven pitchers the Astros acquired during the offseason, and he has rivaled Sunday starter Peter Lambert (2-3, 2.76 ERA) for Houston’s best offseason pickup so far, especially with Imai posting a 9.24 ERA in 12 2/3 innings and Burrows with a 5.72 ERA in a team-high 50 1/3 innings.
“I like the tempo and how fast he works,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “I’d like to minimize some of those walks so we can get him deeper in games. His sweeper was really good today. He got us to the fifth and the bullpen came in and did a nice job.”