This one Tatsuya Imai improvement has to stick if Astros are to rely on him at all

Considering his previous outings, Houston Astros starter Tatsuya Imai's last start against the Twins was definitely a step in the right direction. Imai missed time with what was described as arm fatigue, but it sounded more like a guy trying to figure out how to pitch again. Upon his return, Imai did not look improved at all, but he did manage to get somewhat back on course against Minnesota in one key area.

Overall, Imai was fine. He pitched into the fifth inning and struck out five before exiting after giving up a modest three earned runs. Imai honestly looked considerably better than that against the vast majority of the Twins' lineup, but he probably shouldn't be allowed to pitch to Josh Bell anymore after the veteran slugger tagged him for two homers.

However, neither the length of Imai's appearance nor his strikeout numbers are the best developments from this game. The biggest deal is that Imai didn't walk anybody, and it is that ability to throw strikes when he needs to that is the one takeaway from this start that the young starter should latch on to.

Tatsuya Imai's lack of walks against the Twins shows that he could still turn things around

It is hard to have a walk rate of close to 10 batters per nine as a starter, but that is exactly where Imai found himself entering Wednesday as one of the worst walk rate offenders among qualified pitchers in all of baseball. You can clearly see that he has the raw stuff to succeed if he can just execute and throw strikes, but that had not happened AT ALL through his first few MLB starts.

Imai made some sort of adjustment that resulted in finding the zone a lot more, and opposing Twins hitters (non-Josh Bell division) looked very uncomfortable in the box against him. While the game ultimately resulted in a loss for the Astros, it was also the first time this season that Imai looked like an arm that could actually help Houston this season.

Of course, the trick now is for Imai to keep pounding zone while making steady improvements elsewhere. That is easier said than done, given what we saw out of him in spring training as well as in his first few starts. However, for the first time in a while, Imai actually looked like he could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

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