Imai, Astros bounce back with dominant win over A's

WEST SACRAMENTO -- Slowly but surely, Astros pitcher Tatsuya Imai is learning what life in the Major Leagues is all about. He learned Saturday that when you pick up your first career victory, which he did by throwing 5 2/3 scoreless innings in an 11-0 win over the A’s, your teammates will take you into the shower and douse you with beer and other beverages.

“It was like a champagne fight,” he said.

Imai’s stellar performance in his second Major League start was reason to celebrate for the Astros, who saw their Japanese star strike out nine A’s batters while allowing three hits and three walks in his 94-pitch outing. Imai combined with Kai-Wei Teng (2 1/3 innings) and Steven Okert (one inning) on a five-hit shutout at Sutter Health Park.

• Astros hitters create mass traffic on bases in win as bats stay hot

“I would have liked to have closed it out by going all six innings and I wasn't able to, but it was a little bittersweet,” Imai said. “I want to continue to learn from the mistakes I make in my outings and be able to translate that in the next [start] and continue to improve over the course of the season.”

Imai rebounded nicely from his first career Major League start on Sunday against the Angels in Houston, when he lasted only 2 2/3 innings and allowed four runs and walked four batters. This time out, he said he sacrificed some velocity in exchange for better command of his pitches against the A’s.

According to Baseballsavant.com, the velocity of his slider was down 1.3 mph and four-seam fastball was down 1.6 mph from his first start. He threw 58 of 94 pitches for strikes, getting 18 whiffs on 40 swings, including 10 swings and misses on his slider, which baffled the A’s with its horizontal break to his arm side.

“The slider has a gyro spin to it. It backs up. It’s not a true slider, so the shape is a little bit different and I think guys were not used to that,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “Obviously, it’s the first time seeing him. He ranges his heater from 91 to above 95-96. Sometimes that can be challenging when you haven’t seen a guy. He was more in the zone today than he was in his first start, which made him effective.”

Imai relied mostly on his slider (43 pitches) and four-seam fastball (42 pitches), while sprinkling in a few splitters and curveballs. Some of his split-fingered fastballs and changeups were wrongly classified as sliders, so Imai’s stuff is even giving the computers fits.

“He was throwing that slider for a strike and it was kind of doing everything,” A’s second baseman Jeff McNeil said. “Some went left. Some went right. It was pretty interesting to see. You don’t see a lot of pitches like that. Even on the video from his last start, I didn’t really see one that did that too much. He was throwing that a little bit more today, and it was working against us.”

Astros pitching coach Josh Miller said Imai started pushing towards the right-handed batter’s box with his delivery late in his outing against the Angels, so the focus Saturday was to keep him more in line and towards the plate.

“He wanted to get to work and shore things up and do well,” Miller said. “You want to perform, but he didn’t get down in the dumps. He didn’t sulk. He did his thing. He’s a hard worker and diligent with his throwing and training in the gym and got prepared for his outing today and things went well.”

Astros first baseman Christian Walker said Imai’s laid-back demeanor on the mound put his teammates at ease while playing behind him. They could get used to this.

“It’s kind of his game,” he said. “It’s low effort. It’s easy. The ball comes out hot. There’s a ton of deception with that low slot, the unique slider, the way it spins and breaks. A lot of fun playing behind him today. I expect to see that much more moving forward.”