Baltimore Orioles rookie Brandon Young lost a perfect game in the eighth inning Friday, to a player he shared a clubhouse with a month ago.
On his 24th batter of the game against the Houston Astros, Young allowed an infield hit to infielder Ramón Urías, whom the Orioles traded to Houston at the deadline. Urías hit a soft grounder to Young’s right, just far away enough that he had to make a rushed and off-balance throw that veered wide of first base, allowing the batter to reach second.
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The play was ruled a single for Urías plus a throwing error by Young, who was making the 11th start of his career.
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Young had previously been cruising against the Astros, sitting at 87 pitches before Urías derailed his bid. The 26-year-old from Lumberton, Texas — about 100 miles from Houston — recovered by striking out Taylor Trammell to finish his night with eight scoreless innings in a 7-0 Baltimore win.
The Urías trade was one of several the Orioles made as trade deadline sellers, with Houston picking him up to fill a void in its infield at the cost of pitching prospect Twine Palmer.
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Had Young finished the job, he would have become the third rookie in MLB history to throw a perfect game and the first since 1922. No Oriole has ever thrown a perfect game, of which there are only 24 in MLB history.
Young actually pulled off a different rare feat earlier this season, throwing an immaculate inning (three strikeouts on nine pitches) in his fifth career start. Only four pitchers —Jim Bunning, Sandy Koufax, David Cone and Randy Johnson — have thrown both a perfect game and immaculate inning in their careers, with none of them doing both in the same season.
After two seasons in college at Louisiana Lafayette, Young joined the Orioles as an undrafted free agent following the truncated 2020 MLB Draft and slowly worked his way up through the minor leagues. He made his MLB debut on April 19 and took his first long-term role in the Baltimore rotation in early July.