A sweeper that hand helped land him in the Astros’ rotation betrayed Kai-Wei Teng in undoubtedly his roughest start of the season Tuesday against the Angels.
Scott Strazzante/AP
ANAHEIM, Calif. — For Kai-Wei Teng, success starts with a sweeper. The right-hander throws a half-dozen pitches, but no other has proven more vital to his entry into the Houston Astros’ rotation.
Entering Tuesday, Teng had thrown his most-used pitch 35.4% of the time. Hitters owned a .132 average, a .224 slugging percentage and a 31.1% whiff rate against it. Baseball Savant assessed Teng’s sweeper a plus-7 run value, the highest for any individual pitch on the Houston staff.
Teng’s development of the sweeper has spanned years. He did not begin his professional career with it but stumbled on it while at High-A in 2021 in the San Francisco Giants system, he recalled last month.
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“Back in that time, I just liked to play with the ball when I was in the bullpen or the dugout, and there was one time that I discovered this grip,” Teng said, through an interpreter. “It felt comfortable having this grip, so I (thought) the next day playing catch, I can throw it with my teammate.”
Teng considered the pitch a slider at the time, just more natural to throw than his old slider. At Triple-A, in 2023, a pitching coach classified it as a sweeper. So Teng started then to “really dig in” to elements of the pitch like spin rate and axis to learn “how to make this pitch better,” he said.
“No matter what pitch I’m (throwing), I always think the same — always release it like a fastball,” Teng said. “I think that’s probably why my sweeper has really late break.”
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The results helped propel Teng, the offseason trade addition from the Giants, into a larger role with the Astros in the first half. He had finished 45.5% of at-bats with the sweeper entering Tuesday, compiling a 3.06 ERA and .204 opponents’ average across 47 innings.
Tuesday, then, in Teng’s seventh start for the Astros, his feel for his signature pitch briefly disappeared. The result was an outing that snowballed in the second inning, putting Houston in a seven-run deficit it could not overcome in a 10-1 loss to the Los Angeles Angels.
Teng is among the pitchers who have helped stabilize the Astros’ rotation in recent weeks, context that should be kept in mind. His last two starts have raised his ERA by more than a run, meanwhile, to 3.71, with the Angels chasing him after four innings on Tuesday.
“He’s been really good for us, and just today he had a tough time just getting ahead of hitters,” manager Joe Espada said. “Didn’t create a ton of swing-and-misses, behind in the count. He tried to work through some trouble there and he did give us two more innings when we needed him just to kind of protect our bullpen. But just not his best performance.”
BATTERS
AVG
OBA
AB
R
H
2B
3B
HR
RBI
BB
SO
SB
CS
E
Team Totals
.244
.320
2320
313
566
113
5
86
301
235
573
24
12
27
Wade
.333
.385
12
2
4
2
0
1
4
1
3
0
0
0
Alvarez
.317
.432
243
46
77
13
0
22
48
46
52
1
0
1
Peña
.281
.348
121
23
34
7
0
3
12
10
20
5
1
5
Correa
.279
.369
122
22
34
8
0
3
16
18
26
1
0
1
Trammell
.279
.338
68
8
19
4
1
0
6
5
26
1
0
1
Loperfido
.262
.343
61
7
16
5
0
0
7
7
21
1
1
1
Allen
.250
.290
64
12
16
2
0
1
5
3
14
1
0
0
Walker
.249
.320
253
39
63
12
1
16
48
23
60
0
0
0
Shewmake
.243
.260
74
8
18
3
0
3
8
2
13
0
0
1
Paredes
.240
.337
225
27
54
12
0
9
33
26
43
0
0
5
Diaz
.238
.255
101
7
24
5
0
2
14
3
16
0
1
0
Altuve
.237
.320
177
30
42
10
0
5
13
21
43
1
2
2
Vázquez
.237
.295
135
14
32
6
0
4
19
11
24
0
0
0
Harris
.226
.286
31
4
7
0
1
0
4
2
6
2
0
0
Smith
.220
.310
223
26
49
10
1
6
25
26
70
8
1
4
Meyers
.216
.280
97
10
21
4
0
2
9
8
21
1
2
0
Matthews
.208
.259
154
16
32
4
1
4
15
11
54
2
4
1
Price
.200
.273
10
1
2
1
0
0
0
1
5
0
0
0
Dezenzo
.191
.255
47
5
9
4
0
1
2
4
19
0
0
0
Cole
.157
.189
51
4
8
1
0
3
8
1
21
0
0
1
Johnson
.143
.294
14
1
2
0
0
0
0
2
3
0
0
0
Whitcomb
.105
.150
19
1
2
0
0
1
4
1
10
0
0
0
Salazar
.056
.227
18
0
1
0
0
0
1
3
3
0
0
0
___
PITCHERS
W
L
ERA
G
GS
SV
IP
H
R
ER
HR
BB
SO
Team Totals
31
38
4.91
69
69
17
608.1
551
350
332
87
327
581
Hader
1
0
0.00
3
0
1
3
0
0
0
0
1
7
VanWey
0
0
0.00
3
0
0
3
1
0
0
0
0
5
Brown
1
0
0.84
2
2
0
10.2
5
1
1
0
6
17
Santa
0
1
1.80
6
0
0
10
4
5
2
0
5
8
Arrighetti
7
1
2.21
10
10
0
57
37
16
14
3
31
53
King
0
1
2.54
25
0
6
28.1
26
10
8
1
11
21
Okert
0
0
3.00
31
1
0
30
18
10
10
3
10
26
De Los Santos
0
1
3.21
26
0
4
28
22
11
10
2
5
28
Lambert
5
4
3.55
9
9
0
50.2
39
20
20
3
25
47
Teng
3
5
3.71
20
7
0
51
41
24
21
6
24
49
Pearson
0
0
4.05
6
0
1
6.2
5
3
3
1
4
7
Blubaugh
3
2
4.22
27
0
0
42.2
31
20
20
5
24
37
Roa
0
1
5.19
7
0
0
8.2
10
5
5
1
7
6
Imai
3
3
5.24
8
8
0
34.1
25
20
20
5
23
36
Bolton
0
1
5.40
8
3
1
20
21
12
12
3
14
22
Burrows
3
8
5.77
13
13
0
73.1
87
49
47
17
28
60
Abreu
2
2
6.85
25
0
4
22.1
18
18
17
5
24
31
McCullers
2
3
6.86
8
8
0
39.1
38
32
30
7
22
43
Murray
0
0
7.15
7
0
0
11.1
16
9
9
0
7
5
Weiss
0
3
7.62
9
2
0
26
35
24
22
8
20
30
France
0
0
8.10
3
0
0
6.2
6
6
6
1
5
4
Sousa
0
0
8.10
5
0
0
3.1
3
3
3
0
5
4
Salazar
0
0
9.00
1
0
0
1
1
1
1
1
0
0
Alexander
1
1
9.33
4
2
0
18.1
21
19
19
4
8
14
Gordon
0
0
11.57
4
1
0
9.1
21
12
12
6
3
11
Javier
0
1
12.54
3
3
0
9.1
13
13
13
2
9
4
Muñoz
0
0
15.75
3
0
0
4
7
7
7
3
6
6
A culprit was clear. Teng struggled to locate his sweeper from the onset. He got ahead 1-2 against his first hitter, Zach Neto, before missing badly with two sweepers in a seven-pitch walk. An error on a potential double-play grounder by shortstop Jeremy Peña compounded the inning. After it, Teng got to 2-2 against Jo Adell but yanked two sweepers for another walk that loaded the bases.
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In a 3-1 count to Nolan Schanuel, Teng threw a sweeper that plunked the left-handed hitter on the leg to force in a run. Jose Altuve’s bobbled exchange on another possible double-play ball allowed in another. Teng did strike out Denzer Guzman to end the inning in a six-pitch at-bat in which he threw all sweepers. But the issue carried into the second.
“For the first two innings, I couldn’t really locate my sweeper,” Teng said. “And after I couldn’t really locate my sweeper, I kind of tried a bit too hard and it made the situation worse.”
In the second, Teng and catcher Christian Vázquez tried other solutions. Teng threw 29 pitches in a five-run inning, just four classified as sweepers by Statcast. Adell pulled one on the ground for a two-run double. But that came after Sebastián Rivero and Mike Trout had singled on four-seam fastballs and Wade Meckler had lined a two-run double on a sinker.
“I would say one of the reasons I threw a lot of fastballs today is because I couldn’t really locate my sweeper, but on the other hand, my sweeper plays when I have a good fastball,” Teng said. “So I really have to throw the fastball even if I couldn’t really throw my sweeper. I have to just keep trying and keep attacking.”
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After the second inning, Teng said, he “told myself to settle down” and located the sweeper better. He covered two more innings but ended the fourth with 93 pitches and did not return. Houston’s offense, finishing 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position and stranding 11, could not erase the damage done.
Following Teng’s exit, AJ Blubaugh and Alimber Santa each worked two innings, mitigating some of the impact on its bullpen. Most other relievers will likely be rested for Wednesday’s finale behind Peter Lambert, an opportunity to win a series for the Astros, who at 31-38 must continue to seize them.