What happened: Brandon Young would like to have one throw back, and it wasn’t one he threw to the plate on a night when the Oriole starter was nearly perfect against the Houston Astros.
Needing only four outs to complete a perfect game, Young faced former teammate Ramón Urias. On a 2-2 pitch, Urias hit a tapper to the left of the mound. Young made a clean barehand grab but threw wildly off his right foot, yanking the ball past first baseman Coby Mayo. It was ruled a hit, and an error as Urias reached second. Young then struck out Taylor Trammell to end his night.
“I thought I could make the play,” Young told reporters in Houston. “I got there in in time. I think I had a little more time to maybe take a step and make a better throw. I obviously rushed it, yanked it. Sucks. Definitely want it back.”
The 26-year-old right-hander, who grew up in Lumberton, Texas, 90 minutes from Houston, and rooted for the Astros as a kid, was the story of the night in Major League Baseball. His teammates supported him with stellar defense and strong offense, defeating the Astros, 7-0, on Friday night in Houston. Young made just one mistake.
“It’s gonna be a tough play regardless, but it’s a really tough ask in that spot with the emotions and everything going on,” interim manager Tony Mansolino told reporters. “But it shouldn’t detract one bit from the game that he threw. It was incredible, and that’s one of those moments right there for a young pitcher to where it kind of catapults them forward for the rest of their career.”
Young gave up the one hit, no walks and struck out six in eight innings for his first win.
“Pretty special,” Young told MASN’s Kevin Brown and Ben McDonald. “I mean, I’m looking around, I see people, I see my coach right there. Just to come back home and get my first win and get deep in the ballgame. This team is rolling; I love this group. They’ve had a lot of patience with me and this is my first win, it’s been a while. Yeah, it’s super special.”
Was Young nervous? He said there wasn’t any extra pressure pitching so close to his hometown with so many family and friends in attendance. “Honestly no,” Young said. “It was pretty freeing, honestly. I wanted to just let go and experience it and just really enjoy it. I’m glad it went so well with my family here. I’ve been coming to ballgames [here] since I was 5 years old. To finally step on this field is incredible, it’s awesome.”
Young first thought of a potential perfect game around the fifth inning. “I looked up there and saw I was throwing good and just tried to stay one pitch at a time. That’s what was working for me.”
“Trying to stay one pitch at a time, execute pitches, read the hitters, read their swings and just stay in the moment. Try not to get too ahead of myself.”
What made the difference for Young? Mansolino echoed the importance of Young’s improved command. Young has struggled with his control, and has been critical of himself. He came into the game with an 0-6 record, which isn’t reflective of his ability.
“Fastball command, command of the slider, not throwing the ball for the middle of the plate,” Mansolino said. “He doesn’t quite have that type of stuff where he just throws it middle and lets it rip. He’s gotta pitch, and he pitched. He used different parts of the plate, he mixed it up. Adley [Rutschman] called an incredible game. [Young] executed the whole night, kept his nerves in check.”
Mansolino also lauded Young’s maturity.
“Dejected and also accountable,” is how Mansolino described Young after his previous poor start against Oakland. “That is one of the reasons this guy is gonna get the best out of himself in his career. It’s one of the reasons he’s going to maximize his ability, because he’s a young, accountable player.
“Not all players are that way, he is. So, to see him take the ownership of how he’s pitched thus far and the inconsistency and to see him kind of go out on the mound in this environment against that team, a first-place team, that has quite a bit of World Series experience on it and pitch the way he did, it makes sense. Because people that aren’t accountable, they’re not able to do those things.”
What about the lone hit? “Maybe it’s a hit, maybe it’s not,” Mansolino said. “I’m not so sure. I understand how this whole thing goes, but he was throwing the ball great. We felt really good about it.”
“Set your feet. It’s a hard play, it’s a huge moment, the crowd’s going crazy. [Urias] is a really good hitter, but we’ve seen him hit that same dribbler 100 times and get thrown out by a couple steps a lot, so I just think in that scenario if [Young] set his feet, he’s got a little better shot to make the play.”