Astros' Tatsuya Imai, two relievers combine for no-hitter against Rangers

What happened

Tatsuya Imai and a pair of Houston relievers combined to no-hit the Texas Rangers on Monday night, per MLB Trade Rumors — the first no-hitter in the big leagues since 2024, according to the report.

The result was, by any reasonable accounting, an unlikely one. Imai had returned from a month-long stint on the injured list for arm fatigue and had allowed nine earned runs in 8 2/3 innings across his outings since coming back. He walked four batters on Monday. He also navigated six innings, which MLB Trade Rumors notes was the first time he had done so as a big leaguer.

Steven Okert handled the seventh, and then Alimber Santa closed out the final two frames. Santa was making his MLB debut.

"I never pictured myself coming in and finishing off a no-hitter," Santa told reporters, per Brian McTaggart, as cited by MLB Trade Rumors.

Why it matters

The mechanics of a combined no-hitter tend to obscure the individual stories inside them, and this one has several worth untangling. For Imai, the outing represents a sharp departure from the line he had been posting since his return. A pitcher who had allowed nine earned runs in fewer than nine innings since coming off the IL for arm fatigue is not typically the name you circle on the combined no-hitter scorecard — and yet here we are.

Under general league rules, pitchers are placed on the 15-day injured list, meaning Imai's return from that stint already carried a baseline of scrutiny. The results since his return had done nothing to quiet that scrutiny. Six innings, zero hits allowed, and a no-hitter in the ledger is a different kind of data point entirely — though one game does not erase the nine earned runs that preceded it, and MLB Trade Rumors does not suggest otherwise.

For Santa, the circumstances are almost cosmically unfair to process on a debut. A pitcher making his first appearance is already navigating the full weight of a 26-man roster spot and a 40-man roster inclusion under general league rules. Doing so while closing out a no-hitter in the final two innings — with the crowd, the dugout, and the broadcast all fully aware of what is at stake — is a level of pressure that most pitchers never encounter in a full career, let alone an opening night.

His quote, relayed by McTaggart and cited by MLB Trade Rumors, does the work here: he did not picture it. Few would have.

Why Imai's pre-no-hitter stretch matters

Nine earned runs in 8 2/3 innings is the context against which Monday's six shutout innings should be read. MLB Trade Rumors does not provide a broader season line, so the full picture of Imai's year remains unresolved — but the before-and-after contrast within the return stretch is the operative number, and it is a stark one.

The no-hitter itself is the first in the major leagues since 2024, per MLB Trade Rumors. That is the only historical marker the report provides, and it is enough to establish the rarity of the occasion without needing to reach further.

Arm fatigue as the reason for an IL stint is worth noting in general terms: pitchers returning from that kind of absence are often managed carefully, with workload and pitch counts watched closely. Whether Houston was operating under any such framework on Monday is not addressed by MLB Trade Rumors, and the desk will not speculate. What the report does establish is that Imai reached six innings — a threshold he had not previously cleared at the big-league level — and did so in the context of a no-hitter.

What we don't know yet

MLB Trade Rumors does not address what Imai's role looks like going forward, whether Monday's outing changes Houston's plans for his spot in the rotation, or how the club intends to manage his workload given the arm fatigue that preceded his IL stint. The report does not indicate whether the no-hitter was a scheduled start or offer any other logistical detail about how the pitching game was constructed.

Santa's status beyond Monday — whether he remains on the active roster, what his role might be, or how the club views his debut in a broader context — is also not addressed. A pitcher making his MLB debut in the final two innings of a no-hitter is a memorable data point; what comes next for him is genuinely open. Under general league rules, a player must be on the 40-man roster to appear on the active roster, so Santa's inclusion there is established by the fact of his debut — but his path forward is not something MLB Trade Rumors speaks to.

The report also does not specify when Imai's IL stint began beyond describing it as month-long, nor does it give the exact date of his return. The nine earned runs in 8 2/3 innings is the aggregate since that return, but the number of starts that figure spans is not broken out.

What to watch

The obvious question coming out of Monday is whether Imai's six-inning, no-hit performance represents a turning point in his return from arm fatigue or a single outlier in a still-concerning stretch. MLB Trade Rumors does not answer that, and the desk will not speculate. What it does mean is that his next start carries more weight than it might have before Monday — both because of the no-hitter and because of the nine earned runs that preceded it.

Santa's next appearance, whenever it comes, will tell the club something about whether Monday was a debut or a beginning. Those are different things, and Houston will want to know which one it was.

The Mets, mentioned in the same MLB Trade Rumors report, are navigating their own turbulence: New York has dropped six of seven after a brief mid-May rebound, and righty Nolan McLean — who had not allowed more than three earned runs in any of his first nine starts — has given up 13 earned runs across his last two outings, including a rough Monday against Cincinnati. That is a separate story, but it is worth noting that Monday was a complicated evening for starting pitchers across the league, depending on which dugout you were sitting in.