Brandon Young pitches 7 2/3 perfect innings as Orioles beat Astros

HOUSTON — Brandon Young went for the spectacular because, given the situation, it was the only chance he felt he had to remain perfect. He sped down the mound and to his right, reached out and barehanded the softly hit dribbler from none other than former teammate Ramón Urías, and then …

And then …

Perfection was gone.

Had Young’s throw been on the money, it may have beaten Urías to first. Instead, Young’s spin-and-throw-and-hope, all-in-one-motion prayer to first sailed wide. Daniel Johnson raced after the ball as Urías turned and trotted to second. The rest of the field crumpled as one — Young with a light shrug of his shoulders; Coby Mayo on his hind end in the dirt; Adley Rutschman, catcher’s mask in hand, walking back to his duty behind the plate.

It was over.

But the 7 2/3 innings that Young was perfect were magical, and they set the groundwork for the Orioles’ 7-0 series-opening win against the Houston Astros on Friday night. They created the homecoming to end all homecomings, a local boy returning to flirt with history. Perfection was gone. Heck, the no-hitter was gone, too. Young will have to settle for eight innings of one-hit ball — and settle he will, just 11 starts into his major league career.

“Growing up here, coming to games here, having family and friends here,” Young said, “it’s hard to put into words, honestly.”

That’s fine. Young can keep his words in and focus on the memories he’ll surely never forget. The perfectionist inside Young left him “thinking about me yanking a ball down the line” even after he entered the dugout following the eighth inning. “Pretty upset about that.”

He can cut himself a break, even though there may be second-guessing surrounding the play. Maybe Young could’ve set his feet and had time for the throw. Third baseman Jordan Westburg was charging in, too. He might’ve had an easier time completing the play.

But that’s all nitpicking what occurred in a matter of a second.

“It’s slow motion, right?” Westburg said. “I could see the webbing on his fingers spread and go for the ball, and at that point it’s out of my control. I’m going to pull up and let him do his thing. I thought he had a real shot. It’s a shame, but it’s still a special night for him. I don’t think he needs to dwell on that too much.”

What is done is done. And what is done is this: eight innings, 93 pitches and only one moment he’d like back.

The irony of the situation is that Urías is the one who broke it up against his teammate of two weeks ago. Urías, traded from the Orioles to the Astros ahead of the July 31 deadline, barely made contact with the low-and-away splitter. But he made enough to force Young to hurry.

Before the game, Astros manager Joe Espada said Urías would run the pregame hitting meeting, given his knowledge of the Orioles.

“I’m going to have Urías step up in the middle of the room and give us some of their style and strategy and go over some of the stuff we have noticed in the scouting report,” Espada said.

It didn’t exactly work, apart from Urías’ dribbler. Or perhaps Urías was still serving as an agent for Baltimore’s betterment. Old habits die hard.

When Urías reached second, he said, former teammates Jackson Holliday and Gunnar Henderson “said a couple bad words. A little bit pissed.” Henderson said he gave him “a tap on the head.”

“It was joking,” Henderson said. “I mean, of course it was him that got the hit, but I love Ramón.”

To consider this a possibility for Young would have been optimistic to the extreme. In his first 10 outings for Baltimore, the team’s 2024 Jim Palmer Minor League Pitcher of the Year held a 6.70 ERA. He had completed six innings only once.

And yet here he was, perfect into the eighth inning. Six Orioles have thrown no-hitters, with the most recent coming from left-hander John Means in 2021. None has thrown a perfect game. Young was four outs from joining exclusive company.

This was vastly different from Young’s previous appearance. He wanted to forget about his last start as quickly as possible, and that’s understandable. “I feel like I’ve been dwelling on the past few,” he said last week, “but now this one, it’s like, you know, I’ve just got to get out of my head. On to the next one, really.”

Before we get on to this next one — and it was quite the next one — we’ll revisit last week’s outing and more. Young allowed six runs in three innings against the Athletics. Before that, Young had produced several passable starts, allowing three runs or fewer in five of his previous six outings.

But they weren’t up to Young’s standard. Only in two of those six appearances did he pitch into the sixth inning. So, after a career-short three-inning performance against the Athletics, Young was as frank as he’s ever been in a nascent career.

“It’s just disappointing letting the team down almost every time I go out,” he said. “It’s just really frustrating.”

He was clearly upset with himself. But, when asked what he can take from a start such as that, he issued the vow to flush it, to move on.

So Friday arrived. And with it Young exorcised his previous outing and produced the best performance of his life.

“It’s one of the reasons why he’s going to maximize his ability, because he’s a young, accountable player,” interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “Not all players are that way. He is.”

Added Westburg: “I think tonight showed kind of that true potential, and just who he is, and what his personality is, and the real Brandon Young that I had a pleasure of playing behind for some years now.”

He did it with the help of a newly developed offering that confused Statcast. Young decreased the frequency with which he threw his splitter and curveball and maximized his cutter usage. As it turns out, what Statcast thought was a slower cutter with a higher spin rate was a slider. It came out of his hand about 2 mph slower but had an average spin rate almost 100 rpm faster.

“Just depending on what we’re trying to do with a hitter, the cutter is a little bit more horizontal and the slider provides a little bit more depth,” Rutschman said. “Just giving a bigger speed differential, and I really liked how it looked in pregame today. So kind of upped that usage.”

Young didn’t rely on swings and misses, and that helped his pitch count. He finished the sixth inning at 62. He made an acrobatic play to catch Mayo’s toss to first to finish the seventh inning.

Then, in the eighth, Greg Allen and Johnson collided in right-center field but Johnson made the catch. But that was a prelude. Urías broke the spell shortly after.

“Maybe it’s a hit, maybe it’s not,” Mansolino said. “I’m not so sure. I understand how this whole thing goes.”

Meanwhile, Young had a lead with which to work first because of Mayo’s line-drive solo homer to the Crawford Boxes in left field, and next because of some daring baserunning. The Orioles tagged left-hander Framber Valdez for four runs in 6 2/3 innings, continuing a trend of success against a starter who entered with a 2.97 ERA.

In six previous matchups, the Orioles held a .748 OPS. Mayo’s long ball was the loudest of the bunch, but they scattered nine hits against Valdez — the second most he has allowed this season.

Another two runs scored in the fifth via Henderson’s bases-loaded sacrifice fly. Johnson, at third, dove head-first into the plate to beat Jesús Sánchez’s throw from left, and catcher Yainer Diaz couldn’t corral it. Holliday, who began at second, never stopped running. He slid across the plate before the loose ball was corralled.

And in the seventh Henderson’s single to score Westburg chased Valdez from the game. Jeremiah Jackson notched an RBI single and Dylan Carlson added a two-run homer in the eighth.

Perfection was close. Young was four outs away. He won’t go down in history.

But to be here at all?

He was as close to flawless as can be. And that still means something.

“It was incredible,” Mansolino said. “That’s one of those moments right there for a young pitcher to where it kind of catapults him forward through the rest of their career.”

This article has been updated.