Deng Kaiwei's pitching control becomes unstable again, hit by home runs in consecutive games.

Houston Astros right-handed pitcher Deng Kaiwei faced the Washington Nationals in a spring training exhibition game today, encountering control problems again after five days. In the second inning of his pitching, he was hit by a home run again, finishing with a performance of 2 innings, 1 strikeout, 2 walks, 1 hit allowed, and 1 run conceded.

Deng Kaiwei entered as a reliever in the top of the 6th inning, pitching 2 innings total with 36 pitches; the high pitch count was due to control issues. He threw 20 strikes and 16 balls overall. Among them, 17 sliders/cutters were used most frequently, with 11 landing outside the strike zone, and 6 successfully inducing swings from batters, including 4 swing-and-misses.

After one out in the top of the 6th inning, Deng Kaiwei consecutively issued two walks, using 18 pitches to face only three batters. Although he then stabilized and secured two outs consecutively, in the top of the 7th inning facing Daylen Lile—who debuted in the major leagues last year and achieved a wRC+ of 132 over 351 plate appearances—a slider/cutter pitched outside the strike zone to the left-handed batter was pulled over the right-field wall for a home run, resulting in being hit by home runs in consecutive games.

After being hit by the home run, Deng Kaiwei used 10 pitches to retire three batters consecutively, including finally inducing swing-and-misses with two sliders/cutters outside the strike zone against Riley Adams, recording his only strikeout of the day. The final stats were 2 innings, 1 strikeout, 2 walks, 1 hit allowed, and 1 run conceded.

Deng Kaiwei, whose pitch velocity had already recovered to last season's regular season level in the previous game, maintained his velocity today as well, including three pitches reaching over 95 mph. His primary weapon, the slider/cutter, still had a 56% swing-and-miss rate, but other pitch types failed to generate swing-and-misses, and the proportion of fastballs thrown within the strike zone was also relatively low. Overall, whether his control can improve may influence his opportunity to make the major league roster at the start of the season.