{"id":595946,"date":"2026-02-27T11:33:40","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T11:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/595946\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T11:33:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T11:33:40","slug":"tatsuya-imai-throws-scoreless-inning-struck-by-comebacker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/595946\/","title":{"rendered":"Tatsuya Imai throws scoreless inning, struck by comebacker"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai threw a 10-pitch scoreless inning and was struck by a comebacker in his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/astros-imai-japan-bba2d83af94728aacbb454b94fa5307c\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spring training debut for the Houston Astros<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday against the New York Mets.<\/p>\n<p>Imai allowed a leadoff single to Marcus Semien, whose sharp hit ricocheted off the pitcher&#8217;s lower right leg and went into foul territory. Imai was checked by an athletic trainer and stayed in the game. He finished the inning with a infield popout by Mike Tauchman and a double-play grounder by Bo Bichette.<\/p>\n<p>The 27-year Imai was a three-time All-Star in Japan before agreeing in January to a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/tatsuya-imai-astros-contract-c1616ce611e0365f27cfb9d2be226c09\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$54 million, three-year contract<\/a>\u00a0with the Astros. Houston lost Framber Valedez when he left as a free agent and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/framber-valdez-detroit-tigers-b103b9cc782f5a7bd6f60fe7cbcb79cc\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">signed with Detroit<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Eight of Imai&#8217;s 10 pitches were strikes, and he threw only sinkers and changeups. All three balls put into play, none out of the infield, came on changeups.<\/p>\n<p>Imai had 0-2 counts on Semien and Tauchman. Bichette&#8217;s inning-ending grounder to third base came on the first pitch, an 87 mph changeup.<\/p>\n<p>Imai was 10-5 with a 1.92 ERA last season for the Pacific League\u2019s Seibu Lions, striking out 178 in 163 2\/3 innings. He was 58-45 with a 3.15 ERA in eight seasons with Seibu.<\/p>\n<p>His contract with the Astros included a $2 million signing bonus and salaries of $16 million this year and $18 million in each of the next two seasons. Based on his 2026 performance, his 2027 salary would escalate by $2 million each for 80, 90 and 100 innings, and his 2028 salary by $1 million for each level. He can opt out after the 2026 and 2027 seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Japanese right-hander Tatsuya Imai threw a 10-pitch scoreless inning and was struck&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2389],"tags":[563,556,1769,42,5,139,54,3211,4,169,557,185,1567],"class_list":["post-595946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston-astros","tag-app-professional-sports","tag-app-sports","tag-associated-press","tag-astros","tag-baseball","tag-houston","tag-houston-astros","tag-houstonastros","tag-mlb","tag-news","tag-professional-baseball","tag-sports","tag-texas"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116142381677517746","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}