Tatsuya Imai finally gave Astros hope after combined no-hitter, but concerns remain

For the first time this season, it looked like the $54 million bet might pay off. While the start was rocky with Tatsuya Imai walking three of the first four hitters he faced on Monday night in Arlington, he threw the first six hitless innings as part of Houston's combined no-hitter.

It was the night the Astros had been waiting for since they signed the NPB All-Star to a three-year, $54 million deal in January. If we can take a minute to peek just beneath the headline of the night, it was also a fairly uncomfortable line for a starter who started the night with an ERA over 8.00 in his first few big league starts.

Tastsuya Imai’s latest start had some uncomfortable footnotes

The result on Monday night was better than the underlying metrics, which is always an uncomfortable conversation to have. Imai walked four batters in six innings while only striking out two. He threw 97 pitches, but just 57 for strikes (and just 48 were actually in the zone). The Rangers swung and missed at just six of his pitches while chasing just 16% of the many outside the zone. 

The Rangers bailed him out with a couple of timely double plays. A double play between the second and third walks of the first made that inning a non-story. And then another double play erased his fourth walk of the night in the fourth. They just kept hitting the ball right at people, which, if we’re being honest, isn’t at all their fault. Justin Foscue and Danny Jansen had deep fly outs in the fifth. Joc Pederson was retired on a really nice play by Jeremy Peña. The defensive plays piled up because the contact was there; the Rangers were just hitting into outs.

Remember, this is the same Imai who returned to Houston in mid-April for tests on right arm fatigue after recording just one out in Seattle while allowing three runs on one hit with four walks. He’s already missed time. He came back, made one bad start against the Mariners on May 19, where the ABS system overturned a key strikeout against Randy Arozarena, and the wheels came off, and now this. This is basically the wildest possible pendulum swing. 

The combined no-hitter improved his record to 2-2 and got his ERA down to just above 6.00. But it doesn’t erase the fact that he’s still learning the league. He told reporters that his last no-hitter came in middle school, which is a pretty fun and adorable detail. The Astros have been hoping for any kind of stabilizer in their rotation since Hunter Brown went down, and on Monday night, Imai gave them six innings of zeroes. He also gave them another reminder that many of his issues remain. 

Imai and the Astros desperately needed this moment. After two months of questions and murmurs from a fanbase that watched the big free agent starter pitch poorly when he pitched, but also not pitch all that much, the no-hitter serves as something like a release valve. It buys him a couple of weeks of confidence. It probably buys him a longer leash, too. It also gives the rotation a story other than injuries and underperformance, which is a welcome break. For a player who chose Houston partially because he wanted to forge his own path away from the Dodgers pipeline, as he told Japanese media this winter, getting his name on the franchise no-hitter list is a moment that could reshape a season.

Fans get to enjoy this as long as they want, but the next start is what matters most for Imai. If he walks four in five innings against a good Milwaukee lineup, Monday’s a fluke. If he comes out and throws like he did last year in the NPB, then we can start talking about a turning point.

For one night, though, Houston gets the Imai they paid for. The footnotes can wait until Saturday.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow