Tatsuya Imai, Steven Okert, and Alimber Santa combined to throw the 18th no-hitter (fifth combined no-hitter) in Astros franchise history. Tonight’s no-no against the Rangers in Arlington is the Astros seventh no-hitter in the last eight years
Imai struggled to find the zone against the first two batters, but the righty settled down after a mound visit, getting a much-needed double play and fly out to end the inning. Over the next five innings, Imai only needed to face the minimum number of batters. In his 6th career Major League start, Imai threw 97 pitches across six innings of work, striking out two.
Reliever Steven Okert entered in the seventh inning, making quick work of the Rangers lineup. After a leadoff walk, Okert struck out Ezequiel Duran, then forced Jake Burger to fly out to center and Justin Foscue to pop out to short.
Making his MLB debut, Alimber Santa entered in the eighth inning to close out the game. The twenty-three-year-old right-hander only needed 24 pitches, throwing 12 for strikes, also facing the minimum number of batters and striking out Brandon Nimmo to complete the no-hitter.
Offensively, Houston was backed by multi-hit performances by Nick Allen and Christian Vázquez as well as home runs by Yordan Alvarez and Christian Walker, leading to a 9 run and 10 hit effort.
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