<p>2002 princeton graduate and current san diego padres starting pitcher chris young took a no-hitter into the ninth inning last night before giving up a one-out, pinch-hit home run to the pirates' joe randa. young, in his third big-league season, is now 11-5 on the season with a staff-best 3.55 ERA for the NL west-leading friars. he also leads the entire major league in batting average against. by that measure, he is the toughest pitcher to hit in all of baseball.</p>
<p>more on young, who was "ridiculously dominant" again yesterday in leading the padres to their first playoff win against the cardinals:</p>
<p>Young intimidates with cool demeanor</p>
<p>ST. LOUIS – To make a long story short, Chris Young stands 6 feet 10 and is every inch an icicle. </p>
<p>He is the cold-blooded killer among the Padres' high-strung starting pitchers, a fellow uniquely suited – both physically and psychologically – to shoulder stress. </p>
<p>The former Princeton basketball star plays baseball with the cultivated cool of a Bogart character blown up to the size of a door frame. He is as impenetrable as Rick Blaine, as unflappable as Sam Spade and, more to the point, mostly unhittable. </p>
<p>“Chris Young has been an inspiration to me,” Padres pitcher Woody Williams said yesterday of a teammate 13 years younger. “Just his demeanor. There are no highs and no lows. He's very professional. I couldn't be happier if I had pitched this game.” </p>
<p>Williams gets to pitch tonight's Game 4 of this National League Division Series because of how well Young pitched yesterday's Game 3. With the Padres perched one loss from another St. Louis sweep in their best-of-five series, Young absorbed all of that playoff pressure without betraying for a moment that it might have been burdensome. </p>
<p>He pitched 6 2/3 shutout innings in the Padres' 3-1 victory, striking out nine and permitting no Cardinal past second base. Three times in three tries, Young retired St. Louis' fearsome Albert Pujols – twice on swinging strikes – and he so dominated the proceedings that Padres fans were left to wonder why he had not opened the series instead of the mercurial Jake Peavy. </p>