Taiwan's strong pitcher Deng Kaiwei's major league masterpiece sweeps the ball and becomes the best weapon

Kaiwei Deng. (AFP)

[Sports Center/Comprehensive Report] The 27-year-old Taiwanese pitcher Kai-Wei Deng, who plays for the Astros, has amazing power in sweeping the ball. He showed it to the Cubs today, surrendering 6K scoreless innings in 6 innings, a masterpiece of his major league career, and finally won his third win of the season. Deng Kaiwei said in an interview after the game, "Sweeping the ball is currently my best weapon."

Deng Kaiwei threw a total of 89 balls today, including 42 sweep balls, allowing his opponents to miss 7 times, and created a total of 10 misses in the game. Deng Kaiwei talked about the sweep ball after the game and said: "Obviously, the sweep ball is currently my best weapon. In the past few years, when I didn't throw the sinker and four-seam fastball well, I would throw a lot of sweep balls. This year I believe in the power of my ball even more. Even if I feel that the sinker and the four-seam pitch are not smooth enough, I still throw these fastballs according to the distribution, so that they can have a good "co-rail effect" with the sweep ball, which is probably why the sweep ball works so well."

So far this season, when opposing batters face Hawick Deng's sweeping ball, their batting average is only 0.105, their slugging rate is 0.140, and their swing rate is as high as 32.2%. Catcher César Salazar pointed out that Kaiwei Deng can throw this ball on both sides of the home plate. Whether it is controlling the ball in the strike zone to grab strikes, or throwing it in the temptation zone to let the batter chase, it is quite effective.

Salazar also revealed that the reason why Deng Kaiwei's sweep ball is so difficult for opposing hitters to master is that it looks like a fastball for most of the way to the plate, and then suddenly turns left. By that time, the hitter has already made a swing decision to deal with the fastball, and there is almost no chance of getting a solid hit. Salazar believes that although the speed of the sweep ball is about 6 to 7 miles slower than that of the fast ball, it is not like some change-ups that show their secrets as soon as they are released.