Alejandro Osuna grounded to third, Isaac Paredes threw to Christian Walker, and Tatsuya Imai walked off the mound at Globe Life Field with six innings of no-hit baseball and 97 pitches on the card.
Ninety-seven is why this became a combined no-hitter instead of a complete one. Imai had been brilliant and labored in equal measure — four walks, two strikeouts, and a first inning that saw Joc Pederson, Osuna, and Ezequiel Duran all reach base without Texas touching the ball for a hit. A double play, Nick Allen to Jeremy Peña to Walker, cleaned up the first. After that the Rangers kept putting the ball in play and the ball kept finding gloves. Grounders to Allen at second. Pop-ups to Paredes at third. Three fly balls to Jake Meyers in center across the first five innings alone.
Imai struck out only two men — Osuna swinging in the third, Andrew McCutchen on a foul tip in the fifth. The other sixteen outs he recorded came on balls in play. He was scattering his own walks and trusting his fielders, and his fielders were exactly where they needed to be, for six innings.
Then the bullpen door opened.
Steven Okert came in for the seventh and walked Brandon Nimmo. The first reliever in a combined no-hitter inherits the whole thing: he did not build this, but he can break it. One bad pitch and the line in the scorecard changes. Okert struck out Duran swinging, got Jake Burger to fly to right, and watched Justin Foscue pop to Peña. Fifteen pitches, one inning, the no-hitter through its first handoff.
Alimber Santa needed two innings. Houston had fresh gloves in the infield by the late innings — Braden Shewmake at third, Brice Matthews at second. McCutchen grounded to Shewmake for the first out of the eighth, Jansen did the same for the second, and Santa caught Michael Helman's line drive for the third. In the ninth, Pederson lined to Matthews at second, Osuna grounded to Shewmake, and Brandon Nimmo took a called third strike.
Nimmo challenged the call. The review confirmed it.
The first no-hitter of 2026 belongs to three arms. Imai built it over 97 pitches. Okert carried it through the seventh. Santa closed it with two innings and a replay. Five men walked, four struck out, twenty-three outs came on balls in play. The final was Houston 9, Texas 0. The Rangers never did get a hit.
<!-- THE PACK — every number here is off the reconciled card for this game and nothing else. The writer does not recall a stat; if it is not here it does not exist. Tatsuya Imai, Steven Okert and Alimber Santa combined on a no-hitter the 1st no-hitter of 2026 A completed game without a hit allowed. MEANS: A no-hitter is not a perfect game and is not a shutout. Men may have reached — on walks, on errors, on a hit batsman — and the pack says how many did. If more than one pitcher threw it, it is a COMBINED no-hitter and every one of them threw it. - hits allowed: 0 - walks: 5 - strikeouts: 4 - pitchers used: 3 - opponent: Texas Rangers -->