Tatsuya Imai on Mon, Sep 28, 2026

Imai fires a clean, scoreless inning powered by a pinpoint slider

On September 28, 2026, against the Athletics, Imai Tatsuya worked one scoreless inning, allowing zero hits and zero walks while striking out one batter. Given the small sample of a single frame, this was a clean, efficient outing that reinforces a recent uptick in form.

His season-long numbers still read a bit rough — a 4.93 ERA and 1.42 WHIP across 23 appearances — but the trend line over his last few outings tells a different story. He has posted scoreless innings in three straight appearances since September 17, and in his last 10 outings he has allowed earned runs in only two of them. Today's pitch mix was split almost evenly between his four-seam fastball (5 pitches, 50%, averaging 93.0 mph, an 80% strike rate) and his slider (5 pitches, 50%, averaging 84.3 mph, a 100% strike rate) — every single slider he threw landed for a strike, which speaks to sharp command of his breaking ball. On the platoon splits, Imai has been noticeably tougher on right-handed hitters this season, holding them to a .191 average and a .604 OPS, compared to .218 and .714 against lefties. He has also allowed just 2 home runs in 110 at-bats versus righties, against 7 in 170 at-bats versus lefties — a gap that could shape how he's deployed going forward.

A quick word from Unico: this was a short outing, but the command he showed on the slider — a perfect strike rate — is the kind of detail that, if it holds up, should start pulling that ERA back down toward where his stuff suggests it belongs.