{"id":652655,"date":"2026-03-30T15:32:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T15:32:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/652655\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T15:32:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T15:32:17","slug":"i-was-kind-of-nervous-ex-japanese-star-flops-for-astros-in-mlb-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/652655\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I was kind of nervous&#8217;: Ex-Japanese star flops for Astros in MLB debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nerves got the best of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yardbarker.com\/mlb\/teams\/houston_astros\/12\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Houston Astros<\/a>\u00a0right-hander Tatsuya Imai in his big-league debut Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>In a 9-7 win over the Los Angeles Angels, Imai pitched 2.2 innings, walking four. The former Nippon Professional Baseball standout signed a three-year, $54 million contract in the offseason.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I went out there looking to have fun, but with that said, it&#8217;s a different environment from the time I was in Japan,&#8221; he said to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/48343023\/tatsuya-imai-struggles-nerves-walks-astros-debut\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">AP in Japanese through an interpreter<\/a>. &#8220;I was kind of nervous, which may have been a bad thing, but it was just a different atmosphere for me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ten family and friends from Japan watched Imai&#8217;s big-league debut.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wanted to perform better for them and get through five innings today, but as you saw, I threw up too many pitches in the first and second innings,&#8221; he said. &#8220;So, I didn&#8217;t perform up to the level that I wish to for them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Tatsuya Imai\u2019s struggles perplex manager\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Imai\u2019s inability to find the strike zone perplexed Astros manager Joe Espada. In his final season in the NPB, Imai had the fewest number of walks (45) in a full season of work (163.2 innings) in his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I wasn&#8217;t expecting the scattering the zone,&#8221; Espada said. &#8220;He&#8217;s shown the ability to throw strikes. So, first one, we got that one out of the way. I&#8217;m sure that Imai can&#8217;t wait to get back on the mound.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Imai&#8217;s next start should come April 4 at the Athletics, who could present a different challenge for the former NPB standout. The A&#8217;s play in a hitter&#8217;s park, Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, California. The Athletics ranked seventh in the majors in home runs at home last season with 105.<\/p>\n<p>In his NPB career. Imai allowed six home runs in 2025 and eight in 2024, but served up double digits in every other full season (over 100+ innings).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nerves got the best of Houston Astros\u00a0right-hander Tatsuya Imai in his big-league debut Sunday. In a 9-7 win&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2302],"tags":[5,2353,2352],"class_list":{"0":"post-652655","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-npb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-nippon-professional-baseball","10":"tag-npb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116318853228418198","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652655","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=652655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}