Tatsuya Imai Turning Around Astros' 2026 Narrative With Another Stellar Performance

Another dominating performance should have the Astros thinking bigger picture.

Tatsuya Imai | Lon Horwedel-Imagn Images

If the Houston Astros are going to get back into the playoff race in the American League, they are going to have to do it behind their pitching, which could be getting a step closer to being healthy.

Lance McCullers had a strong rehab outing for the Triple-A Sugar Land Space Cowboys on Thursday night. He threw three shutout innings, allowing two hits and striking out four. There is no timetable for his return to Joe Espada's rotation, but this is another positive step for a rotation that is looking to get healthy.

While McCullers was pitching for Sugar Land, Dana Brown's big offseason addition, Tatsuya Imai, was on the mound at Comerica Park in Detroit, facing the Tigers. After a slow start with the Astros, that including dealing with an injury, the right-hander put together a strong outing and he is beginning to look like the pitcher Houston was hoping to get when they signed him back in January.

Tatsuya Imai Dominates Tigers in Astros Win

Tatsuya Imai | Erik Williams-Imagn Images

Imai and Detroit starter Troy Melton hooked up in an old-fashioned pitchers' duel in the Motor City. However, Imai was able to outduel the Tigers' right-hander to the tune of allowing just two hits, one walk, while striking out 10 in six innings in a 2-1 Houston win.

Imai earned his fifth win of the season thanks in large part to a 422-foot solo home run from Taylor Trammell in the top of the sixth inning. That swing broke up a perfect game until that point for Melton. That compounds even more how good Imai needed to be, matching Melton pitch for pitch.

“That was a well-pitched game by Imai,” said Espada, according to Steve Kornacki of MLB.com. “Twenty-one punchouts in his last two starts. His fastball and slider [combo] continues to get dirtier and dirtier. That [slider] is a tough pitch to hit. It does so many different things, and it blends so well with his fastball. It’s been tremendous.”

Tremendous in his last two starts would be an understatement by Espada. However, the truth is, despite being 40-43, the Astros enter Game 2 of their weekend series with Detroit just 1.5 games behind the Seattle Mariners in the American League West Division. They are all of a sudden in second place, something that seemed like a dream just a few weeks ago.

Houston is tied with the Athletics for the final AL wild-card spot. There is a lot of baseball left to be played this summer, but if Imai can continue to pitch as he did in his last two starts, and the rotation gets healthy, then things will have a different feel around Houston than they did just one month ago.