Baltimore’s Brandon Young Makes MLB History With an Immaculate Inning Against the Mets

The Baltimore Orioles pitcher became just the seventh rookie in baseball history to get three outs with a total of nine strikes in one frame.

Brandon Young of the Baltimore Orioles pitches against the New York Mets at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore on July 8, 2025. Greg Fiume/Getty Images

No sport embraces statistics, whether common or rare ones, quite like baseball. From home runs to hitting for the cycle or complete game shutouts, baseball is built on stats.

On July 8, a rare feat occurred when the Baltimore Orioles hosted the New York Mets. Rookie pitcher Brandon Young, playing in just his fifth MLB game, threw an immaculate inning for the O’s in the fifth. What makes an inning immaculate? It involves striking out all three batters using a total of nine pitches, the minimum possible.

Nine pitches, nine strikes, three outs … immaculate.

How uncommon is an immaculate inning? Young recorded just the 116^th in MLB history, and for a sport that has been around since the 1800s, that amounts to fewer than one per season. There have been three times as many cycles (349) and nearly three times as many no-hitters (326). Young is the second pitcher this season to accomplish the feat, joining Cal Quantrill of the Miami Marlins, who did it versus the Tampa Bay Rays in May.

Baltimore had a 1-0 lead entering the fifth inning when Young made history. First up was Jesse Winker, who fouled off a pair of pitches to face an 0-2 count before Young got him swinging on a splitter. Next up was Jeff McNeil, a former batting champion and a lifetime .287 hitter. He fouled off the first pitch before two swinging strikes, also being retired on Young’s splitter.

Luis Torrens then stepped into the batter’s box. Young got him to foul off a pair of pitches, but instead of using his splitter again as his out pitch, he went with straight heat and a four-seam fastball. Torrens was caught looking to give the rookie the highlight of what’s been a struggle of a debut season.

Young, who was undrafted out of college, underwent Tommy John surgery while in the minors and made his MLB debut in April. He entered Tuesday’s game with an 0-3 record and an unsightly 7.02 ERA. He had just three total strikeouts in his last start, while the immaculate inning notched his fourth, fifth and sixth strikeouts of this game.

But the high was short-lived for the native Texan. In the sixth inning, he allowed a home run, then back-to-back doubles before he was pulled from the game. Overall, it was the best outing of Young’s career: He went 5.1 innings, allowed five hits, zero walks, two earned runs and struck out six. Baltimore recaptured the lead after he left the game, so he ended up with a no-decision.

Young is just the fifth Orioles pitcher to have an immaculate inning, which is saying a lot as the franchise has been around since 1901. The last was Kevin Gausman in 2018; the others were B.J. Ryan (1999), Mike Mussina (1998) and Jimmy Key (1998).

He’s also just the seventh rookie to be immaculate and the first since Hayden Wesneski of the Cubs (2022). This was the fifth time in Mets history that they were on the receiving end of an immaculate inning, and Orioles fans are undoubtedly rejoicing that an immaculate inning in one of their games didn’t involve their team getting struck out. That’s because the Baltimore Orioles franchise has been on the wrong end of an immaculate inning seven times, which is second most in MLB history, trailing only the Philadelphia Phillies (eight times).

If Young can stick around in the majors, he has a chance to join a couple of even more elite clubs. Just six players in baseball history have thrown multiple immaculate innings, and just three pitchers–Sandy Koufax, Max Scherzer and Chris Sale–have tossed three.

While that trio makes it seem as if immaculate innings are thrown by Hall of Famers, future Hall of Famers and Cy Young winners, that’s not the case. While other all-time greats such as Nolan Ryan, Bob Gibson, and Randy Johnson have been immaculate, most of the 116 occurrences came from nondescript or journeyman pitchers.

Counting Young, the last eight pitchers to throw an immaculate inning have never made an All-Star Game. Active greats Clayton Kershaw and Justin Verlander have never been immaculate, nor were Roger Clemens, Greg Maddux, Tom Seaver, or Steve Carlton.

All it takes is the stars to align for one inning. It’s akin to when a pitcher strikes out four batters in one inning, thanks to an uncaught third strike that allows a struck-out batter to reach base. The four-strikeout inning is even rarer—it’s been done 100 times in baseball history—so perhaps Young can angle to join that club in his next start.