Deng Kaiwei allowed 5 runs over 5 innings and took the loss, saying his overall performance followed the pregame plan.

Houston Astros pitcher Deng Kaiwei started the home game against the Pittsburgh Pirates on June 5, surrendering 5 runs across 5 innings, leading to a 1-5 defeat and his fourth loss of the year. However, in his postgame interview, he noted that apart from some bad luck, his overall pitching followed the game plan of "attacking the strike zone without deliberately chasing strikeouts," and he gave himself a positive assessment.

After giving up runs in the first inning, Deng Kaiwei retired eight consecutive Pirates batters before unraveling in the sixth. He allowed a long hit to Brandon Lowe, then a slider-cut pitch that Bryan Reynolds turned into an RBI single. Next, Ryan O'Hearn blasted a two-run homer, followed by an infield single from Nick Gonzales, which prompted the coaching staff to pull him from the game.

Reflecting on his performance, Deng Kaiwei attributed the main issues to bad luck and poorly placed pitches: "I feel that aside from my own mistakes in the sixth, the quality of my pitches wasn't much different. Two batters in that final inning got broken-bat hits, so I think it was just some unfortunate luck. But the main problem was the poor pitch afterward that led to the home run."

Over the entire game, Deng Kaiwei threw 5.0 innings, using 88 pitches, allowing 7 hits (including 1 home run) and 5 runs (4 earned), with 2 walks and 1 strikeout, raising his ERA to 3.06. This was his highest single-game earned run total of the season.

When asked about the game's highlights, Deng Kaiwei pointed to his execution of the pitching strategy: "I think what I did well today was consistently attacking the strike zone. Although there were still two walks, overall, the strategy of 'attacking the strike zone without deliberately chasing strikeouts' was quite successful."