Attendees at Camden Yards on Thursday left disappointed as the Baltimore Orioles lost their chance to tie the Texas Rangers for the final AL Wild Card spot. The Orioles dropped the game 4-1 to the AL-worst Los Angeles Angels, igniting fan frustration even more. As if that wasn’t enough, the Orioles’ 22-year-old second baseman’s early misplay was nothing short of an infield nightmare.

The Orioles’ second baseman, Jackson Holliday, will not forget to put on his sunglasses during games anytime soon, especially after he lost a routine pop-up in the sun, which forced Brandon Young to throw 29 pitches to close out the inning. The whole time, Holliday had his sunglasses sitting atop his hat. After the misplay, he put them on, triggering a round of cheering from fans at Camden Yards. Angels reporter Rhett Bollinger posted the incident on his X handle.

“Zach Neto with a single in his first at-bat as cleanup hitter. Shortstop Jackson Holliday lost it in the sun,” Bollinger wrote. “The fans at Camden Yards jokingly cheered when Holliday put his sunglasses on after the play.”

At the top of the second, Zach Neto was at the plate facing Young. On a 3-2 count, Holliday missed nabbing the popup, effectively ending Young’s chance to record the first out of the inning. Holliday’s misplay allowed Neto to advance to first with a base hit.

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Though Holliday’s mistake set the stage for the Angels to load the bases, the 2B himself struggled at the plate. Counting Thursday’s game, Holliday has been hitless and scoreless in all his at-bats during the Angels series.

In all, Young struck out four times in the game. Having said that, his struggles were evident throughout his innings.

Brandon Young called his outing “frustrating”

Brandon Young has been impressive so far for the Orioles. He holds an 8-3 record with a 3.43 ERA across 107.2 innings in 19 starts this season. However, he is well past the total innings he threw in his rookie 2025 season. So, one can say that the workload might be weighing on him at this point. Young even expressed his frustration about Thursday’s outing postgame.

“It was just a frustrating outing overall,” Young told MLB.com. “I made a lot of pitches in the second. Got back in the dugout and was a little gassed. And [I] didn’t do a good job of landing offspeed [pitches] early.”

On top of his 29-pitch second inning, Young was again trapped in a bases-loaded jam in the fourth. Though he escaped with a double play, retiring Oswald Peraza, he had already thrown 13 pitches to the nine-hole hitter.

The Orioles manager, Craig Albernaz, also spoke about Young’s high pitch count. Despite going only 4.1 innings, Young threw 98 pitches on Thursday, of which 60 were strikes. He also struggled in his last outing, surrendering 2 homers and 4 runs in 5.2 innings to the Phillies. His pitch count (94) was up against the Phillies as well.

“He threw way more pitches than he needed to,” Albernaz said, per MLB.com. “Otherwise, he kept us in it.”

Overall, he lacked his usual command during his outing. Young allowed two walks and a three-run homer to Neto. It paved the way for the Angels’ 4-1 victory. Yohel Pozo’s solo shot was the only scoring play the Orioles recorded.