SARASOTA, Fla. — Brandon Young turns the game off as Ramón Urías comes to the plate. It was the eighth inning of an August game in Houston, and Young knows what comes next. He’s seen it in his mind over and over — a replay he doesn’t need to witness to recount in painful detail.

This was the greatest moment of Young’s career, so it’s not a shock that he rewatched the game three or four times this winter. He did so once with his dad. Young’s dad had been in the crowd that night, but he wanted to experience the magic with his son next to him.

So they turned it on and watched 7 2/3 innings of perfection.

“But then I turn it off right before Ramón Urías comes up, so I don’t have to relive that,” Young said.

All these months later, Young still grimaces a bit as he recounts the play that ended his bid for a perfect game. Urías, playing for the Astros, dribbled a grounder to Young’s right. The pitcher hustled off the mound and went for the spectacular, bare-handing the ball and spinning and throwing and — and …

“I remember what I did and what I’d do differently,” Young said.

He tried for the spectacular, and the ball sailed down the line. It was ruled a hit and an error to allow Urías to reach second base. The perfect game was gone.

“I remember Manso [interim manager Tony Mansolino] last year, he joked, ‘A rookie does that. He grabs it and tries to make the play. A veteran picks it up, sees it, plants his foot and throws it into the stands to keep the no-hitter,’” Young said. “That’s what he told me right after I did that. I was like, ‘Thanks, Manso.’”

There is much Young can glean from the first 23 batters he faced that night in Houston, however, and as he prepares for what could be his second season in the major leagues, he’s focusing more on what he did accomplish. For 23 batters, Young dazzled.

The Texas native’s flirtations with perfection in front of friends and family proved something to himself, if not everyone else: He has what it takes to succeed at this level. He can carry that belief into 2026 with an understanding that Baltimore may call on him again sooner rather than later.

“It’s there,” said Ben McDonald, the former Orioles pitcher and the analyst for Mid-Atlantic Sports Network during that game. “It’s in the tank for him. We don’t expect him to be that good every time, but he flashes that and that’s important.”

Young doesn’t expect himself to be that good every time either, because no one can. But he is searching for a way to improve his consistency from outing to outing. When he watches the way he mowed through 23 batters in a row before Urías came to the plate in the eighth inning, he notes the strategy that worked.

He commanded his fastball to both sides of the plate. He controlled his slider, dropping it low and away to right-handed batters. He spun his splitter low and away to left-handed hitters. And he dropped in a curveball now and then, just for another look.

That mix has been a focus for Young this spring, and while his stuff isn’t where it would be in the middle of a season, his spring training outings have featured promising execution with all of those pitches.

But there was also something incalculable about that evening at Daikin Park.

“It was a dream come true, finally stepping on that field,” said the native of Lumberton, which is about 100 miles east of Houston. “Having friends and family there, it was really freeing, and I think that’s what helped me, really freeing me up. Just doing what I can do rather than putting in some expectations or pressure on myself to perform.”

How can Young bottle that feeling? That may just come with time.

“As a young pitcher, I remember those days. It’s hard to be consistent,” McDonald said. “It takes mound time. It takes starts. It takes getting yourself in certain situations and pickles to figure it out.”

The 12 starts Young produced during his rookie year featured a full range of outcomes. He threw an immaculate inning — nine pitches, nine strikes — against the New York Mets in July. He was four outs from a perfect game in August. But he also had stumbles, including three games in which he allowed six or more runs.

Young watched every one of his starts this winter to study the positives and negatives. His appearance against Houston was his favorite to watch — until Urías comes up — but each pitch showed him something.

“I can never think I don’t belong here,” Young said. “That’s just not gonna work. I know I can. It’s tough for rookies making their debut. Some guys have different ways of thinking it, but I do belong here. That’s how I have to think.”

There can be no better proof of that than the nearly perfect night in Houston. That was the best night of Young’s fledgling career. But that doesn’t have to be the end — not by a long shot.