Baltimore Orioles newcomer Brandon Young missed achieving a perfect game in the eighth inning Friday, against a player he previously shared a clubhouse with.
Facing his 24th batter, representing the Houston Astros, Young surrendered an infield hit to infielder Ramón Urías, whom the Orioles had traded to Houston earlier. Urías hit a softly struck ball to Young’s right, placed just far enough away that Young was compelled to make a hurried and unbalanced throw that sailed past first base, allowing the batter to advance to second.
The official scoring recorded it as a single for Urías coupled with a throwing error attributed to Young, who was making his 11th career start.
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Young had been dominating the Astros prior to this, having thrown only 87 pitches before Urías disrupted his pursuit of perfection. The 26-year-old, hailing from Lumberton, Texas – located approximately 100 miles from Houston – rebounded by striking out Taylor Trammell, concluding his outing with eight scoreless innings in a 7-0 Baltimore victory.
The Urías trade formed part of a series of moves by the Orioles as trade deadline sellers, with Houston acquiring him to bolster their infield, in exchange for pitching prospect Twine Palmer.
If Young had completed the perfect game, he would have become the third rookie in MLB history to achieve such a feat, and the first since 1922. The Orioles organization has never had a pitcher throw a perfect game, with only 24 occurring in MLB history.
Earlier this season, Young accomplished a different notable achievement, throwing an immaculate inning (three strikeouts via nine pitches) during his fifth career start. Only four pitchers – Jim Bunning, Sandy Koufax, David Cone and Randy Johnson – have accomplished both a perfect game and immaculate inning during their careers, and none have done both in the same season.
Following two seasons in college at Louisiana Lafayette, Young joined the Orioles as an undrafted free agent following the shortened 2020 MLB Draft, progressing gradually through the minor league system. He made his MLB debut on April 19 and secured a more permanent spot in the Baltimore rotation in early July.
