BASEBALL/Astros' Teng Kai-wei fans 4 in scoreless relief against Athletics

Taipei, Aug. 24 (CNA) Houston Astros right-hander Teng Kai-wei (鄧愷威) struck out four over 1 2/3 scoreless innings against the Athletics on Sunday in his first Major League Baseball appearance in nearly a month.

Teng entered in the fifth inning with one out and a runner on first after the Athletics erased a six-run deficit to tie the game 6-6.

The 27-year-old faced seven batters, allowing one hit and hitting one batter while throwing 28 pitches. Four of his five outs came on strikeouts, and his fastball topped out at 94.3 miles per hour.

Teng's sweeper was particularly effective. He threw the pitch 16 times, inducing seven misses on 10 swings, a 70 percent whiff rate.

After throwing a hit-by-pitch and a wild pitch to put Athletics runners on second and third base, Teng ended the fifth with a strikeout. He returned for a scoreless sixth, working around a double while adding two more strikeouts.

Steven Okert replaced Teng and surrendered a go-ahead solo home run to Max Muncy in the seventh, which proved decisive in Houston's 7-6 loss.

Teng was recalled from Triple-A on Friday, having last appeared in the majors about a month earlier before being optioned on July 26.

During his latest stint in Triple-A, Teng worked exclusively as a reliever, posting a 3.48 ERA with 15 strikeouts and three walks over 10 1/3 innings. He is expected to continue pitching out of Houston's bullpen.

Teng, who had a 5-6 record in the majors, improved his ERA to 4.24 after the game.

With the Texas Rangers defeating the Los Angeles Angels 5-3 the same day, the Astros sit tied atop the American League West Division with the Rangers.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese infielder Lee Hao-yu (李灝宇) recorded two hits, including a double, in the Detroit Tigers' 11-7 road loss to the Kansas City Royals.

Batting second and starting at third base, Lee went 2-for-5 with one RBI and scored twice.

The performance came on the final day of MLB's three-day Players' Weekend, during which the Tigers posted lineups on social media using players' nicknames. Lee was listed in Chinese as "比特犬," which means "Pit Bull."

Lee went 4-for-11 with a double and a home run over the three-game weekend.

The 23-year-old has batted .343 with a .425 on-base percentage and a .486 slugging percentage in 17 games in August. As of Sunday, he had struck out only three times in 35 at-bats this month, after recording double-digit strikeout totals in each of the previous three months.