Tatsuya Imai, Steven Okert, and Alimber Santa combined for a no-hitter in the Houston Astros' 9-0 win over the Texas Rangers in Arlington on Monday, May 25 — the first no-hitter in Major League Baseball since 2024. Imai threw six hitless innings on 89 pitches, struck out seven, walked two, and retired his last 16 batters in a row. Okert pitched the seventh and eighth, and Alimber Santa, making his Major League debut, retired all six batters he faced across the eighth and ninth to close out the game.
The Imai Comeback
Imai's outing is the second start since his return from the injured list — and the inverse of the first one. On May 12 against the Seattle Mariners, the Japanese right-hander allowed five hits, six earned runs, three walks, and two hit-by-pitches in a 10-2 loss that put his ERA at 6.34. The Astros gave him one more start to find it. He did. The slider that had hung over the heart of the plate for Seattle bit out of the zone all night against the Rangers; he generated 16 swings-and-misses on the pitch and used the fastball at 96 to 98 mph as the secondary weapon. It is one of the largest single-start performance swings of the 2026 season.
Santa's Debut
Alimber Santa, the Dominican right-hander Houston called up from Triple-A Sugar Land on Sunday, made his MLB debut by recording the final six outs of a no-hitter. He becomes the first pitcher in MLB history to record his first six career outs as part of a no-hit performance. He struck out three of the six. His fastball topped out at 99.1 mph. Steven Okert, the veteran lefty who pitched the bridge innings, has now been on the field for three of Houston's last four no-hit attempts.
The Franchise Numbers
It is the 17th regular-season no-hitter in Astros franchise history and the fourth that was a combined effort, following the 2003 (Roy Oswalt and five relievers), 2017, and 2022 (Cristian Javier and three) editions. MLB had gone 14 months without a no-hitter, the longest drought since 1990. On the same May 25 night that Victor Wembanyama hit a 40-foot buzzer-beater, the most-watched American sports day produced two career-defining performances in two different leagues. Houston (33-22) sits atop the AL West by 2.5 games. Imai's ERA dropped from 6.34 to 4.42 in one outing.
Source: CBS Sports · NBC DFW
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