Three Strikes of July Magic: Milestones, Mayhem, and a Dodgers Meltdown

From Brandon Young’s Immaculate Inning and Patrick Bailey’s walk-off sprint to the Dodgers’ six-game slide, this week in baseball had it all—history, heartbreak, and high-stakes drama.

Jul 11, 2025

⚾️ Brandon Young Joins Orioles History with Immaculate Inning

On Tuesday night at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in downtown Baltimore, the Baltimore Orioles hosted the New York Mets. Orioles starting pitcher Brandon Young was making just his fifth career MLB start, entering the game with an 0–3 record—a mark that, unfortunately, remained unchanged by night’s end.

However, despite not earning the win, Young delivered a historic moment in the top of the fifth inning. Baltimore’s No. 19 prospect struck out Jesse Winker, Jeff McNeil, and Luis Torrens in order, needing just nine pitches—all strikes—to do it. With that, he completed an Immaculate Inning, one of the rarest feats in Major League Baseball.

An Immaculate Inning occurs when a pitcher strikes out all three batters in an inning using the minimum number of pitches—nine. With this achievement, Young became only the fifth pitcher in Orioles history to accomplish the feat, joining the elite company of Jimmy Key, Mike Mussina, B.J. Ryan, and Kevin Gausman. He’s also the first Oriole to do it since Gausman on April 23, 2018.

Although the Orioles ultimately fell to the Mets, 7–6 in 10 innings, Young’s immaculate inning and career-best performance offered a thrilling highlight and a promising glimpse of what the future might hold for the 25-year-old right-hander.

Young tosses Immaculate Inning vs. Mets; 5th pitcher in O's history to do so

⚾️ Patrick Bailey’s Walk-Off Inside-the-Park Homer Caps a Wild Night in MLB

Tuesday night delivered one of the wildest finishes of the MLB season, as the San Francisco Giants stunned the Philadelphia Phillies, 4–3, with a three-run, walk-off inside-the-park home run by catcher Patrick Bailey in the bottom of the ninth inning at Oracle Park in downtown San Francisco.

It was the first walk-off inside-the-park home run in the majors since Tyler Naquin hit one for the then-Cleveland Indians on August 19, 2016, against the Toronto Blue Jays—a game Cleveland won 3–2. It was also the first for the Giants since Ángel Pagán pulled off the feat on May 25, 2013, when San Francisco defeated the Colorado Rockies, 6–5. Bailey became just the third catcher in MLB history to accomplish such a walk-off, joining Bennie Tate of the Washington Senators (1926) and Pat Moran of the Chicago Cubs (1907).

Meanwhile, across the country in Baltimore, Orioles rookie Brandon Young made franchise history of his own, tossing an Immaculate Inning against the Mets in the top of the fifth. (You can read more about Young’s performance in the story above.) Despite the milestone, the Orioles ultimately fell to New York, 7–6 in 10 innings.

From coast to coast, Tuesday night delivered the kind of rare and unpredictable magic that makes baseball unforgettable.

MLB roundup: Patrick Bailey's walk-off 3-run, inside-the-park HR lifts Giants | Reuters

⚾️ Skidding Into the Break: The LA Dodgers Drop Sixth Straight Ahead of Showdown with SF Giants

Last season, the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in five games to capture their eighth World Series championship. It marked their second title since 2020—though that earlier championship remains a subject of debate among some fans and analysts. The 2020 season was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, with teams playing just 60 regular-season games. The World Series that year, in which the Dodgers beat the Tampa Bay Rays in six games, was held at a neutral site—Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, home of the Texas Rangers—further fueling skepticism over the legitimacy of that title in the eyes of some critics.

Fast forward to the present, and the Dodgers hardly resemble a reigning champion. Following a 3–2, 10-inning loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday night, July 9, at American Family Field in Milwaukee, L.A. has now lost six straight games. They’ve been swept in back-to-back series—first from July 4 to 6 at home against the Houston Astros (a rematch of the infamous 2017 World Series), and then from July 7 to 9 on the road in Milwaukee.

While a six-game losing streak might not raise alarm bells for most teams, it’s a serious slump by Dodgers standards. This marks their longest skid since April 2019. Ironically, two of the losses during that 2019 stretch also came against the Brewers. Over the current six-game slide, the Dodgers have scored just 10 total runs—another concerning trend for a team built around star power and offensive depth.

Now, the Dodgers will try to regroup as they travel from Milwaukee to San Francisco for a crucial three-game series against their longtime and storied rivals, the Giants. The series will close out the first half of the season—and possibly set the tone for what's to come in the second.

Brewers vs Dodgers score; live game updates, highlights

⚾️ Final Word: Baseball at Its Most Unpredictable

This week served up everything that makes baseball so compelling: a rising rookie etching his name into franchise history, a wild walk-off that felt straight out of a movie, and a powerhouse team suddenly stumbling into crisis. Whether you're watching for the thrill of the unexpected or the slow-building drama of a long season, moments like these are a reminder that baseball never runs out of ways to surprise us.

With the All-Star break approaching and playoff races beginning to take shape, buckle up—because if this week was any indication, we’re in for a wild second half.

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