The Baltimore Orioles sit atop the AL East alone after their 9-5 win against the Cleveland Guardians. Now, Brandon Hyde's squad is 0.5 games ahead of the second-ranked New York Yankees with an opportunity to widen that gap in the lead-up to the postseason. A big factor in all of this is their first pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, Jackson Holliday. While his work as a baseman is great, he can never seem to get a hold of the bat properly. Is all of that about to change?
Jackson Holliday just got his second career home run and first on the road with the Orioles. It was an insane 362-foot moonshot against Guardians' Gavin Williams.
Clearly, this is a good indicator of his improvement as a slugger. To put it into perspective, he was hitting 2-for-34 with Triple-A Norfolk just last April in a 10-game span. With two singles and 18 strikeouts in that time too, his future did not look promising. However, Brandon Hyde kept his trust in the Orioles' young gun. Now, it paid off when they faced the Guardians. The manager could not help but gush about how better the former first overall pick has become, via Jake Rill of the MLB.
“Showing a lot more confidence. The way he can stay on the baseball is much improved. He’s going to have some ups and downs. He’s a really, really young player. But it’s great to see him swing the bat this way this series,” the Orioles head honcho said.
How good was Jackson Holliday in the Orioles vs. Guardians series?
Hyde's observations were very apparent in this series against the Guardians. This was Holliday's third straight multi-hit game. In this series closer, the Orioles' young slugger notched a two-out single and went 2-for-4 in the whole matchup. In total, he racked up two RBIs with this new lineup that Hyde is trying with the Orioles.
Holliday outlined his secret in doing better at sending balls out of the arena.
“I think definitely just having my feet under me helps. Being able to come to the ballpark and have a normal schedule. And just being able to go out there and play, have fun, and kind of put everything else to the side … just enjoy being out there,” he noted.
The Orioles will need the 2022 MLB Draft's first overall pick to keep this pace of improvement. They have the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays up next in their schedule. This means that Hyde would need to win both of these series such that they leave the Yankees to eat dust.
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