Miami Marlins at Houston Astros

With two weeks to reflect on a tumultuous first half of the season and ample time to make some changes before his first start after the All-Star break, Astros right-hander Tatsuya Imai leaned more on his third pitch and delivered the kind of start manager Joe Espada hopes to see more of going forward. Imai, pitching for the first time since July 7, held the Marlins to one run and four hits and struck out eight batters in six innings, while Isaac Paredes clubbed a three-run homer in the fifth inning to lead the Astros to a 5-3 win Tuesday night at Daikin Park. Imai pitched the Astros’ fifth game out of the All-Star break, throwing for the first time since he went 3 2/3 innings two weeks earlier in Washington, which gave him 13 days between starts. He turned in one of the better starts of his rookie season, throwing 96 pitches (56 strikes) in his longest outing since June 25. In his first 13 starts, Imai relied mostly on two pitches -- slider and four-seam fastball -- and had dispersed them pretty evenly, but that wasn’t the case Tuesday. He threw 52 sliders (54 percent) and 32 four-seamers (33 percent), leaning heavily on a slider that produced 11 of his 15 swings and misses. But he threw 12 changeups, which was his second-highest usage of a third pitch this year. “It allows him to use his fastball and the slider more effectively,” Espada said. “The \[changeup\