Kai-Wei Teng’s first start of the season lasted just three innings, and the Houston Astros could not overcome an early deficit, falling to the Baltimore Orioles 5-3 Tuesday night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
Teng, moved from the bullpen to the rotation to address Houston’s injury-depleted starting staff, allowed five hits and two earned runs in three innings before giving way to Steven Okert to begin the fourth. The two runs came in the first inning, when Gunnar Henderson doubled, scored on an Adley Rutschman single, and Rutschman came around to score on a Samuel Basallo double to put Baltimore ahead 2-0.
Teng did show flashes. He struck out Rutschman in the third and picked off Jeremiah Jackson at first base in the second, a call that was overturned on an Astros challenge, to end the inning. But three innings was his limit, and the bullpen could not hold the line.
Houston’s only answer through the middle innings came from Brice Matthews, who hit a solo home run in the fifth—his second of the season—to trim the deficit to 2-1. But Pete Alonso answered immediately with a two-run shot off Ryan Weiss later in the inning to push the lead to 4-1, and Adley Rutschman added an RBI single in the seventh—scoring Henderson, who had walked and stolen second—to make it 5-1.
The Astros mounted a late rally in the eighth against Anthony Nunez, with Christian Walker doubling, scoring on a Dustin Harris triple, and Harris coming home on a Matthews RBI single to pull within 5-3. But Ryan Helsley came on and shut the door, striking out Tyler O’Neill to end the threat.
Shane Baz held Houston to one run on six hits over 5.2 innings, striking out six. The Astros stranded ten runners and went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position.
Houston falls to 11-19 with the loss and will send Peter Lambert to the mound Wednesday night looking to even the series in Baltimore.
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