BASEBALL / Teng Kai-wei tosses two scoreless innings in Astros' loss to Dodgers

Taipei, May 5 (CNA) Houston Astros right-hander Teng Kai-wei (鄧愷威), the only active Taiwanese pitcher in Major League Baseball (MLB), continued to impress out of the bullpen Monday, tossing two scoreless innings in an 8-3 home loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Teng took the mound at the start of the sixth inning with the Astros trailing 8-3. He allowed one hit, a single to Alex Freeland, and struck out two, lowering his earned run average to 2.35.

In his second outing in three days, Teng threw 31 pitches, including 18 strikes. His fastest pitch was a 96.1 mph four-seam fastball, which he used to strike out nine-time All-Star Freddie Freeman to end the seventh inning.

That strikeout gave Teng 68 career strikeouts, moving the 27-year-old past Tsao Chin-hui (曹錦輝) for fourth place among Taiwanese pitchers in career MLB strikeouts.

Next on the list is retired Taiwanese pitcher Kuo Hung-chih (郭泓志), who recorded 345 strikeouts. The top two on the list are Chen Wei-yin (陳偉殷) with 846 and Wang Chien-ming (王建民) with 394.

Teng had been scheduled to make his second start of the season on Sunday amid a shortage of starters in the Astros' rotation, but the outing was canceled after he pitched 1 1/3 innings Saturday in a 6-3 road win over the Boston Red Sox.

The Astros have a team ERA of 5.78, the highest in the majors. The only other team with an ERA above 5.00 is the Arizona Diamondbacks at 5.07.

Houston ranks fourth in the American League West Division at 14-22, one game ahead of the Los Angeles Angels (13-23).

The Astros will host the Dodgers for two more games over the next two days.