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Baltimore Orioles rookie pitcher Brandon Young lost his perfect-game bid in brutal fashion during the team’s 7-0 win over the Houston Astros on Friday.
Young, 26, was four outs away from etching himself into the history books when Astros second baseman Ramon Urias was up.
Young threw a changeup on the outside part of the plate in a 2-2 count. Urias reached out and tapped a groundball softly in between the pitcher’s mound and third base.
Young, who had to hurry because of Urias’ speed, picked the ball up with his bare hand, turned and fired an errant throw to first base, allowing Urias to reach. Urias was given a hit, and Young was charged with an error for allowing Urias to advance to second base on his wild throw.
“I thought I could make the play,” Young said postgame. “I got there in time. I think I had a little more time to maybe take a step and make a better throw. Obviously, rushed it, yanked it. . . . Definitely want it back.”
Young settled down and struck out Astros’ center fielder Taylor Trammell to end the inning. The 26-year-old threw eight innings while allowing just the one hit to Urias, and he tied his career-high with six strikeouts.
“He was throwing all of his pitches for strikes, behind in counts, ahead in counts. Was able to mix locations well. Thought he just executed his plan really well,” Orioles catcher Adley Rutschman said of Young’s performance.
Young said he knew the perfect game was on the line as the game went on.
“It’s really hard not to think about it,” Young said. “It’s kind of just trying to calm yourself down and think about just one pitch at a time. Kind of breathe, calm myself down a little bit, but I could tell what was happening.”
Young is a native of Lumberton, Texas, which is less than 100 miles northeast of Houston, and said his parents and grandfather were among the family members in attendance at Daikin Park, where Young first started attending games when he was five years old.
The Orioles (56-66) will play the Astros (68-54) in the second game of their three-game series on Saturday at 7:10 p.m. ET.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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