Despite a career-high nine strikeouts, the right-hander confronts the harsh reality of Baltimore’s postseason slide.
Brandon Young had plenty of reason to feel good about his own night Sunday. He had just struck out a career-high nine hitters, worked six innings against one of baseball’s best teams and finished his final home start of the season with a 3.62 ERA across 151 2/3 innings.
The problem was that none of it mattered much to him by the time the Baltimore Orioles walked off the field.
The Orioles were swept by the Milwaukee Brewers after a 3-0 loss at Camden Yards, leaving the Orioles five games behind the final American League Wild Card spot with only six games remaining. For Young, the frustration had less to do with the quality of the opponent than with the timing of another series in which Baltimore failed to play up to what he believes it can be.
“Very disappointing,” Young said postgame, via MASN. “I think we all know in here how much it means, and how disappointed we are as a whole.”
That was the backdrop to what was otherwise one of Young’s better outings of the season.
He allowed two runs on three hits and three walks while striking out nine, surpassing the eight strikeouts he recorded against Washington on June 27. Young also generated 15 swings and misses and posted a 37 percent called-strike-plus-whiff rate.
More importantly, he felt like the execution was where he wanted it to be.
“Felt great,” Young said. “Was executing for the most part, getting ahead, throwing strikes, and was putting them away with two strikes.”
That has been a meaningful development for Young after his difficult 2025 season, and it is part of why he has remained one of Baltimore’s more consistent starters this year. Yet even after putting together another quality performance, his attention quickly shifted back toward the larger problem facing the Orioles.
Young said Baltimore has shown throughout the season that it can play with the better teams in the league. He mentioned Atlanta and Los Angeles alongside Milwaukee when discussing the toughest lineups he has faced, but he didn't sound convinced that the Orioles have consistently played at that same level themselves.
“I think sometimes we click on all cylinders, sometimes we don't,” Young said. “I think that's with any ball club, really. You know the good ones, from what I can tell, just do it all year long or consistently, and we, like I said, we've shown we can do that.”
That inconsistency is particularly difficult to accept now.
Baltimore had just swept the Mets in New York earlier this month, only to return home and lose all three games to the Brewers. The Orioles have also been shut out in consecutive games and have not scored over their last 19 innings.
With the season approaching its final week, there is little time left to find the version of the team Young believes is still there.
“I still have more to show, and I think we as a team have more to show,” Young said.
That may be the most important thing Young took away from his final night at Camden Yards. His own season has given Baltimore plenty to build around. What he wants now is a chance for the team around him to show that the inconsistency that has defined so much of 2026 isn't the best version of what these Orioles can be.
