SAN FRANCISCO – Whether it was a four-seam fastball that sat in the low-90s, a slider a tick slower, or a changeup, sinker or curveball of varying speeds, Kai-Wei Teng put each pitch exactly where he wanted on a relatively warm Friday night at Oracle Park.
While using each pitch to fill the zone with strikes in front of 38,679 fans, the 26-year-old thought of just one man on Taiwan’s Father’s Day.
“I want to thank my dad for supporting me over the past 18 years in anything,” Teng said through interpreter Andy Lin, adding a personal message to his father, who he believed had watched the game on TV at home in Taiwan. “I want to say ‘I love you’ to my dad.”
Unleashing his five-pitch arsenal, Teng overwhelmed Nationals hitters to the tune of five scoreless innings of relief in San Francisco’s 5-0 victory over the Nationals.
Six days after being saddled with the loss in New York, the 26-year-old from Taiwan was sharp against cellar-dwelling Washington. He struck out four, allowed just three hits and walked only one while throwing 64 pitches.
He became just the ninth pitcher born in Taiwan to earn a win, and the first since Wei-Chung Wang did so for the Pirates against the Cardinals in September of 2019.
“He’s throwing more strikes, and he’s using his fast ball enough to get off his breaking stuff, and his breaking stuff’s really good,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said. “So for me, he’s just being a lot more efficient.”
For his efforts, the righthander earned the first win of his career and allowed San Francisco to start a nine-game homestand with a victory. The Giants, who won their first home game since July 11, improved to 59-57, while Washington fell to 45-70.
Lefthander Matt Gage opened the game and threw one inning.
The Gaints gave Teng a 2-0 lead after Rafael Devers belted a ball 427 feet over the right center field wall and Matt Chapman singled in Willy Adames from second base in the bottom of the first inning.
The Giants put up 10 hits, eight of them off Nationals starter Jake Irvin (8-7). Leadoff hitter Heliot Ramos also extended his on-base streak to 21 games by walking in the bottom of the seventh.
Star prospect Drew Gilbert, acquired in the Tyler Rogers trade, made his MLB debut in right field. While he did not get a hit, he still found a way to bring the Oracle Park crowd to life.
He tracked a looping fly ball off Jacob Young’s bat deep into right field. He twisted, turned, and endured a face full of dirt after securing the catch.
“I almost lost my footing in the dirt once I went over the line, and thankfully I was able to hold onto the ball,” Gilbert said. “I think I was okay with the face, but I may have gotten a little dirt on it.”
After being held hitless for the first four innings, the Nationals’ bats strung together three consecutive hits and loaded the bases to begin the fifth inning.
Teng responded by throwing a sinker to get the force out at home. On the next pitch, Teng unleashed a curveball that resulted in a grounder to Willy Adames and a double play to end the inning.
“My pitching coach came up here, and helped me a lot, to settle down and take a deep breath and figure out what kind of strategy and what kind of pitches I was going to pitch,” Teng said.
Casey Schmitt made it a four-run Giants lead when he hit a two-run homer over the left field wall in the sixth inning. Patrick Bailey, who also hit a triple, made it 5-0 with a single and some smart base running by Jung Hoo Lee in the eighth inning.
San Francisco asked Matt Gage, normally a reliever, to make his second career start as the team’s opener. He did his job, throwing his slider on nine of 17 pitches during a flawless first inning.
Lefthanded rookie Carson Whisenhunt is expected to start against Brad Lord on Saturday, and Justin Verlander will try to earn his second win of the season against McKenzie Gore on Sunday.
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