{"id":694923,"date":"2026-05-26T04:20:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T04:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/694923\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T04:20:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T04:20:23","slug":"three-astros-pitchers-combine-to-throw-first-mlb-no-hitter-since-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/694923\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Astros pitchers combine to throw first MLB no-hitter since 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 The Houston Astros<\/a> have pitched several combined no-hitters. This one might have been the biggest surprise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai<\/a> threw six hitless innings after walking three of the first four batters he faced Monday night. Steven Okert then got three outs before Alimber Santa made his major league debut and retired the final six hitters to complete the Astros’ 17th regular-season no-hitter \u2014 four of them combined efforts \u2014 in a 9-0 win over the Texas Rangers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first inning, you never thought that this was going to be the outcome of the game,\u201d manager Joe Espada said. \u201cImai, he continued to compete. … He continued to pound the zone, he fought through it. Six strong innings, and then the rest is history.”<\/p>\n

It was the first no-hitter in the major leagues since\u00a0Shota Imanaga and two Chicago Cubs relievers combined for a 12-0 win\u00a0over Pittsburgh on Sept. 4, 2024. No pitcher has tossed a complete-game no-hitter since Blake Snell for the San Francisco Giants against Cincinnati on Aug. 2, 2024.<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old Santa fired two perfect innings to finish it and became the first pitcher since 1900 to play any role in a no-hitter during his big league debut, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, there was some adrenaline,\u201d Santa said through a translator. \u201cI was aware of the no-hitter, but I was just trying to calm myself down from the bullpen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ronel Blanco tossed the previous no-hitter\u00a0for the Astros in a 10-0 victory over Toronto on April 1, 2024, which also marked Espada\u2019s first win as manager. In fact, Houston has authored three of the past seven and five of the last 11 major league no-hitters \u2014 beginning with one in the 2022 World Series when\u00a0four pitchers combined against Philadelphia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Okert worked the seventh after Imai got 16 outs over the last 16 batters he faced. He benefited from a double play in the first, then settled into a groove after issuing his third walk.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring pre-game, our focus was attacking the zone,\u201d Imai said through a translator. \u201cBut in the first inning, I felt unbalanced, the timing was off. But after that inning, I was able to adjust the timing, all the rhythm and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santa entered in the eighth and retired all six batters he faced. His 24th pitch was a called third strike against Brandon Nimmo to end it for his first big league strikeout. That was confirmed after an ABS challenge by Nimmo of the final pitch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn’t sure,\u201d Santa said, but catcher Christian V\u00e1zquez was already on the mound telling him, \u201cHey stud, that’s a strike.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rangers were held without a hit for the sixth time, the first since\u00a0Corey Kluber threw a no-hitter against them\u00a0for the New York Yankees on May 19, 2021.<\/p>\n

Imai\u2019s fourth walk of the night was to Nimmo leading off the fourth inning, but Ezequiel Duran then grounded into a double play.<\/p>\n

Imai (2-2) threw 57 of his 97 pitches for strikes. He struck out two.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old Imai, who said his only previous no-hitter came in middle school, is in his first big league season after coming over from Japan. He was 1-2 with an 8.31 ERA in his first five starts for Houston.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Imai joined the Astros in January after agreeing\u00a0to a $54 million, three-year contract.\u00a0He was a three-time All-Star during eight seasons in Japan, and went 10-5 with a 1.92 ERA last season for the Pacific League\u2019s Seibu Lions, striking out 178 in 163 2\/3 innings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rangers leadoff hitter Joc Pederson was retired on a nifty play in the third when shortstop Jeremy Pe\u00f1a made a backhand stop and a twisting throw to first for the out. Justin Foscue and Danny Jansen had deep flyouts into the left-centre gap in the Texas fifth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Okert walked Nimmo leading off the seventh before retiring the next three batters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 The Houston Astros have pitched several combined no-hitters. This one might have been the biggest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":694924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-694923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=694923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/694923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/694924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=694923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=694923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=694923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}