BALTIMORE -- Despite a less-than-ideal performance in Tuesday night’s rehab start with Double-A Corpus Christi, Astros right-hander Tatsuya Imai has cleared one critical hurdle.
“Stuff-wise, the arm fatigue, it was not present, that’s for sure,” Houston manager Joe Espada said prior to Thursday's doubleheader against the Orioles at Camden Yards. “His stuff looked really good. The performance wasn’t great, but at least we checked the box of he did look healthy.”
Espada said later on Thursday that Imai will make one more rehab outing before returning to the club. That came after a morning discussion with the former Nippon Professional Baseball star less than 48 hours after Imai allowed five runs in two-plus innings while throwing only 31 of his 59 pitches for strikes.
“We liked the health. We’re not concerned about the health,” Espada said Thursday. “We want to make sure the performance from the other day does not linger into his next start. So we’re going to have a conversation with him. We want to hear from him, see how he felt and then we’ll decide what’s next.”
As of Thursday, the Astros had not announced a starter for Sunday’s series finale in Boston.
Now that Imai won’t be filling that void, the lead candidate could be Kai-Wei Teng, who worked three innings as an opener in Houston’s 5-3 loss to Baltimore on Tuesday.
Imai had pitched to a 7.27 ERA in three starts before going on the 15-day IL with arm fatigue.
He was masterful in his second outing, allowing three hits in 5 2/3 scoreless innings against the Athletics on April 4. Six days later, he lasted only one-third of an inning while walking four and allowing three earned runs against the Mariners.
He’s walked at least three in all four of his starts, including his rehab outing.