Tatsuya Imai’s Return From Injury Didn’t Go As Planned For Astros

The Houston Astros were hoping for more from Tatsuya Imai as he returned to the rotation.

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Despite only throwing fastballs and sliders, Tatsuya Imai struggled mightily on Tuesday night. The NPB superstar has historically struggled with his command, and his return start was no different.

During the game, Houston Astros beat writer from The Athletic, Chandler Rome, reported on X (formerly Twitter) that Imai was hesitant to throw his changeup and splitter, due to the belief that it led to his faulty command. Well, that was thrown out the window on Tuesday. Out of his 80 pitches, 50 were four-seam fastballs, while the remaining 30 were sliders.

This duo accounted for four nine whiffs, but became repetitive and predictable quickly. Imai threw just 46 of his 80 pitches for strikes, walked three batters, and hit two more. Overall, he allowed six runs on five hits, two homers, and struck out three over four innings of work.

His first three innings of work weren't horrendous, but Imai fell off the rails in the fourth. He opened the inning by hitting Randy Arozarena and Luke Raley, both on sliders. He then walked JP Crawford on four fastballs outside of the zone.

Is It Time To Panic Yet?

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Imai then hung a slider to Dominic Canzone, who hit a no-doubt grand slam to right field. The brutal fourth inning sequence slammed a nail in the coffin of Imai's night, but he had pitched well to that point. The only other runs he allowed were on a different hanging slider, this one to Arozarena in the third inning which he deposited off the back wall of the Crawford boxes for a two-run homer.

Both homers and hit batsmen were due to sliders, which weren't controlled well, but Imai struggled with his fastball command as well. On Imai's three free passes allowed, 10 of the 12 balls were fastballs.

He missed routinely with the fastball, but it didn't produce much damage. When he missed with the slider, everyone knew it.

This disheartening appearance doesn't bring Imai much confidence, but Houston needs him. The Astros' rotation is in dire need of consistent, strong production, something that he's failed to produce during his short tenure in Major League Baseball.

Houston signed Imai to a three-year, $54 million deal with a player opt-out after the first season. Unless Imai plans on punting on his MLB career and doesn't care about money, he'll be here for the long haul. Moving forward, it's time to go back to the drawing board.

He initially thought his splitter and changeup were causing command problems, but after Tuesday night's disaster, that clearly wasn't the case.