<\/p>\n
Houston Astros starting pitcher Tatsuya Imai sits in the dugout after being taken out of the game during the first inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo\/Lindsey Wasson)<\/p>\n
Lindsey Wasson\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
Houston Astros starting pitcher Tatsuya Imai reacts after allowing a run against the Seattle Mariners on a wild pitch during the first inning of a baseball game, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo\/Lindsey Wasson)<\/p>\n
Lindsey Wasson\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
Houston Astros starting pitcher Tatsuya Imai reacts after walking Seattle Mariners’ Josh Naylor during the first inning of a baseball game, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo\/Lindsey Wasson)<\/p>\n
Lindsey Wasson\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
Houston Astros starting pitcher Tatsuya Imai is taken out of the game by manager Joe Espada during the first inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners, Friday, April 10, 2026, in Seattle. (AP Photo\/Lindsey Wasson)<\/p>\n
Lindsey Wasson\/Associated Press<\/p>\n
SEATTLE\u00a0\u2014 Sensing trouble did not take long. Two batters into Tatsuya Imai\u2019<\/a>s third MLB start, Houston Astros<\/a> pitching coach Josh Miller strode to the mound for a visit. Four batters in, a reliever rose in the visiting bullpen at T-Mobile Park. After the seventh Mariners hitter, and the sixth to reach base, Astros manager Joe Espada had seen enough.<\/p>\n \u201cHis last start was really good,\u201d Espada said after his team\u2019s 9-6 loss Friday<\/a>. \u201cTough time just finding the strike zone. We\u2019re just, again, having a tough time as a unit throwing strikes. And we\u2019re working to make our adjustments. But it takes a toll on our staff.\u201d<\/p>\n This formula is not sustainable. Houston played its seventh game of a 10-game road trip Friday night in Seattle. In five of those games, its starter did not reach the fifth inning. Onus is falling on a bullpen that entered Friday with the highest ERA in the majors. A rotation with the second-highest ERA in baseball has not fared much better.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Neither unit is at full strength. Closer Josh Hader\u2019s absence rearranged roles in a bullpen that began the season without leverage lefty Bennett Sousa as well. Three days after placing ace Hunter Brown on the injured list<\/a> with a right shoulder strain Sunday, the Astros saw starter Cristian Javier<\/a> walk off the mound in Denver with the same injury.<\/p>\n Javier\u2019s injury required the Astros\u2019 beleaguered bullpen to cover seven innings in a loss Wednesday. An off-day Thursday allowed a slight breather for a relief corps pressed into action by the fifth inning twice at Coors Field and twice more in the prior series in West Sacramento, Calif. One of the exceptions came thanks to Imai, who reached the sixth in his first MLB win against the A\u2019s.<\/p>\n Houston sought a similar effort from him Friday. Its series opener in Seattle marked the start of a stretch of 13 games with no off-day. Astros officials say they plan to use a six-man rotation during it, a strategy that will require Houston to delve into its pitching depth due to recent injuries and for those starters to shoulder more workload ahead of a shorthanded bullpen.<\/p>\n Imai did not. In failing to finish an inning, the right-hander re-opened the scars still fresh from Colorado and perhaps fueled the question of whether an expanded rotation is even feasible. Beyond that, Imai\u2019s third MLB start marked a step back from his second, in which he threw 5\u2154 scoreless innings, instead echoing the command issues from his debut.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI know we had the losing streak and players with injuries,\u201d Imai said through an interpreter. \u201cI wanted to stop this losing streak, but I wasn\u2019t able to perform the starting pitcher job, so that\u2019s the sad part.\u201d<\/p>\n Imai faced seven hitters Friday. He walked four, hit one and retired one on a groundout. An infield single by Julio Rodr\u00edguez was the only hit Imai allowed. But with the Astros trailing 3-0, the bases loaded and Imai showing no grasp of the strike zone, Espada removed him before the game could spiral completely. Houston still fell 9-6 to the Mariners, its fifth consecutive loss.<\/p>\n In three of those losses, the Astros have scored at least six runs. They had five losses\u00a0\u2014 total\u00a0\u2014 last year when scoring at least six runs, going 45-5 in those games. Houston ended Friday night with a 6.32 ERA, highest in the majors. Its staff has allowed the most walks\u00a0\u2014 80 in 121 innings\u00a0\u2014 and the most hits in the sport. Its season is just 14 games old yet the trends must prompt some concern.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s frustrating for me and for (Yainer) Diaz when we\u2019re catching\u00a0\u2014 we hate walks\u201d said catcher Christian V\u00e1zquez, who has caught each of Imai\u2019s starts. \u201cI think we can control that, we\u2019re going to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n Imai\u2019s transition to MLB is ongoing, yet the injuries to Brown and Javier only intensify the importance of its yielding results. In his three starts, Imai has thrown a total of 8\u2154 innings. Friday, he never appeared to have command of his fastball or slider. He threw 37 pitches, just 17 for strikes. He generated one whiff on 13 swings after striking out nine in his outing against the A\u2019s.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cMy impression of this stadium, the mound was really hard, so I wasn\u2019t able to adjust to that mound,\u201d said Imai, who added it is \u201cnot usual\u201d to pitch in cooler weather in Japan like he felt Friday in Seattle.<\/p>\n A different mound and baseball are aspects of Imai\u2019s move. Still, the potential for each new stadium and mound casting his command into uncertainty is a daunting notion. Friday, the Astros seemed to try what they could to help him adjust in the moment. Miller\u2019s mound visit after two batters was atypical. Espada acknowledged the Astros, like Imai, are \u201clearning, right, as we go\u201d in their partnership.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe the feel for the ball is slick, it\u2019s a little chilly out there, all those are things that we\u2019re learning from him,\u201d Espada said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to talk to him and see if there\u2019s anything we can do to help him. When Josh went out there, we gave him a few instructions for him to get back into the at-bats. But it\u2019s his third start of the year, so we\u2019ll help him out.\u201d<\/p>\n Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s infield hit\u00a0\u2014 possibly a double-play comebacker if hit a bit lower\u00a0\u2014 was costly. Imai, though, continued to miss with his fastball away to Mariners left-handed hitters. V\u00e1zquez said he called several sliders behind in counts hoping it might help Imai find the zone, but Imai landed just three of 14 sliders for called strikes. He has hardly thrown anything except his fastball and slider with Houston.<\/p>\n After Imai hit Randy Arozarena with a two-strike slider to force in a run, V\u00e1zquez challenged a 1-0 pitch to Luke Raley that missed off the outside corner. V\u00e1zquez said the situation influenced his challenge.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt was close, very close, in my eyes,\u201d V\u00e1zquez said. \u201cBut yeah, it was try to do something to help him.\u201d<\/p>\n Seven batters in, Espada acted. As a result, Houston used two of its long relievers Friday, including J.P. France, just called up from Triple-A. Ryan Weiss, four days after throwing 62 pitches in Denver, used another 64 to procure seven outs. Weiss pitched better than at Coors Field but left a fastball up in the zone that Arozarena pulverized for a two-run homer that broke a 3-3 tie in the fifth.<\/p>\n France faltered in Seattle\u2019s four-run seventh. He faced 15 batters and allowed three hits, four walks and a hit batsman. Houston\u2019s potent offense halved a six-run deficit in the eighth, then brought the potential tying run to the plate in the ninth, forcing the Mariners to use setup man Matt Brash and closer Andr\u00e9s Mu\u00f1oz. Espada said he would \u201ctake that as a win.\u201d But the result, again, was not.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to keep grinding,\u201d Espada said. \u201cIt\u2019s game (14), right? We\u2019ll figure it out. We\u2019ll start getting the ball in the zone, we\u2019ll start getting some people out, we\u2019ll have quick innings. We\u2019ll do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston Astros starting pitcher Tatsuya Imai sits in the dugout after being taken out of the game during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":{"0":"post-244793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-houston","9":"tag-houston-headlines","10":"tag-houston-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}