Orioles pitcher Brandon Young was four outs away from a perfect game Friday night at Daikin Park in Houston.

With two outs in the 8th inning, he did all he could to try and save his perfect game and no-hit bid on a slowly hit ground ball by Astros second baseman Ramón Urías. Young picked up the bouncing ball with his bare hand and made an off-balanced throw to first base to try and get Urías but the throw went wide and past first baseman Coby Mayo.

The play was ruled an infield single, breaking up both the perfect game and no-hitter, plus a throwing error by Young which allowed Urías to get to second.

He struck out the next batter, which ended his night as Yaramil Hiraldo came in for the ninth to close out Baltimore's 7-0 victory. Young threw eight scoreless innings on 93 pitches and 61 strikes, striking out six batters and allowing just the one costly hit.

It was a close call for what would've been the first no-hitter this season and only the 25th perfect game of all time. The last perfect game was thrown by Domingo Germán for the Yankees during the 2023 season. Before that, the previous perfect game took place more than a decade earlier when Félix Hernández accomplished the feat in '12.

Nevertheless, it was a masterful outing by Young. He made his MLB debut earlier this season and had an 0-6 record and 6.70 ERA over 10 starts heading into the night. He did throw an immaculate inning earlier in the season though, completing an inning by retiring three batters on nine straight strikes.

This certainly qualifies as a memorable first major-league win.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Orioles Pitcher Throws Away Perfect Game, No-Hit Bid Trying to Make Tough Play.

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