Let’s get the good news out of the way first: Jackson Holliday singled in in the seventh inning in Sunday’s finale against the Milwaukee Brewers. His first MLB hit was key in a rally that saw the O’s go from down 4-3 to up 5-4 in a game they would ultimately win 6-4, narrowly avoiding the three-game sweep.
The bad news, if you’re so inclined to perceive it in that manner, is that Holliday, the top prospect in baseball, went 0-for-13 to begin his big league career.
In all likelihood, this will be nothing but a blip at the start of a storied career, a piece of trivia, a surprising footnote overshadowed by a couple decades of MLB accomplishments.
The reason I want to talk about it is because I found something quite remarkable while Jackson’s 0-fer to start his career kept increasing, at-bat by at-bat. Amid the din of yokels declaring that “HE AIN’T READY” and fans of other teams trolling us, was an overlooked variable: Jackson Holliday was getting PITCHED TO.
It was like every opposing pitcher suddenly became prime Greg Maddux when Holliday was up, none wanting to be an answer to a trivia question in their own right.
Let’s dive into this a bit.
Holliday’s first at-bat, on Wednesday in Boston, was against Kutter Crawford. Here’s how it went:
Crawford first backed the rookie off the plate with a cutter (kutter?) that nearly hit him. He then bent in a knuckle-curve that clipped the top of the zone. Holliday chased a splitter in the dirt, then took a fastball down there to even the count at 2-2. He then got what ended up being the best pitch to hit he’d see for days, a sweeper right in the middle of the plate that he swung through.
It was his first ever AB! Cut him some slack.
Holliday finished his first night 0-for-4, but picked up his first big league RBI in the process in the O’s 7-5 win. He struck out twice, the latter being after a nice seven-pitch battle.
First-game jitters out of the way, surely he’ll get more mistakes to hammer in the coming days, right?
Yeah, about that.
Moving on to Thursday’s contest, the Sox ran out Garrett Whitlock. In the third inning, Whitlock faced Holliday for the first time, and fed him a steady diet of pretty perfect change-ups at the bottom of the zone. On 2-2, Holliday rolled over the fourth change-up he saw down by his knees, grounding to first.
In the fifth, Holliday saw Whitlock again. This is where things truly began to get bizarre for the youngster.
He takes a lowwwww change-up that I suppose, if you squint, could have caught the bottom of the zone, for strike one. He then swung at a good cutter that ended up in on his hands, fouling it off to fall behind 0-2. Sensing an opening, Whitlock climbed the latter with the same pitch, placing it perfectly high and inside, inducing the swing-and-miss for strike three.
In the 8th, Holliday got his first look at a big-league southpaw, Joely Rodriguez. This was a darn good AB by Jackson.
He fell behind 0-2, then worked the count full. He got one to hit on 3-2, but inside-outted it to third base. He should have been out, but reached on an error.
That was one you would have liked to see him turn on, sure. But again, first AB against a major-league left-handed pitcher.
In the top of the 9th, with the game tied 3-3, and two teammates on, Holliday stepped in for a high-pressure AB against none other than Boston closer Kenley Jansen. Just a four-time All-Star, two-time NL Reliever of the Year, World Series champion, and member of the 400-save club. Ho hum.
Doesn’t sound like a recipe for a first-ever MLB hit. Reader, it in fact, was not.
Jansen threw his moneymaker, his cutter, beautifully, back-dooring it twice low and outside to get ahead 0-2. Holliday laid off a couple outside the zone, but Jansen went upstairs with the cutter again, inducing the swinging strikeout.
Having posted an O-fer in his first two contests, Holliday came home to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, ready to get that milestone moment in front of the friendly Birdland crowd.
The Milwaukee Brewers pitchers were having none of it.
Friday night. City Connects (we can talk about how cursed they are or are not another time). Huge standing ovation. With his team already up 4-0, surely Crew pitcher Freddy Peralta was ready to settle in and pitch to contact, right?
Nope.
How about an impeccably placed slider to start the AB, followed by 94 up and in? Again Holliday found himself down 0-2, hung in nicely to work the count to 3-2, but finally went down on another perfect slider, this one of the back-foot variety.
Please tell me what Holliday was supposed to hit there? Could he have walked instead? Perhaps, but again: tip your cap to the opponent.
Peralta was feeling exactly zero percent more charitable in Holliday’s next trip, despite his team already being up 7-1.
This time, Holliday chased an outside change-up to fall behind 0-1, then watched Peralta dot 96 over the outside corner. He took 94 at his eyes, as the Brewers starter expertly changed eye levels to set him up for a slider below the knees.
Again. What was the kid supposed to hit here?
With Peralta gone, things didn’t get any easier. It also seemed that Holliday was pressing a bit at this point, hoping to ambush a get-me-over pitch with the game out of reach. Instead, he got a good slider, expanded on a sinker, then watched a back-door slider for strike three.
Rude, Bukauskas. Rude. It’s 10-1, bro.
On Saturday, perhaps sensing that his youngster was feeling the pressure and trying to do too much, plus with lefty DL Hall on the mound, Brandon Hyde made the understandable decision to sit Holliday. Maybe if he was in there, he doesn’t boot the ground ball that started Milwaukee’s ANNOYING third inning, but that’s neither here nor there.
Back in the lineup against righty Colin Rea, Sunday was ultimately going to be the day. But things started just as they had been going for the rookie.
Rea wasn’t good yesterday. He hit Gunnar Henderson leading off the game, gave up homers to Ryan O’Hearn and Cedric Mullins, and allowed runs in each of the first three innings. But against Holliday, he was Pedro Martinez.
Two ABs, ten pitches, and not a single one anywhere near the middle of the strike zone. The final one a back-door sweeper that Rea couldn’t have walked 60 feet six inches to home plate and placed any better.
It was really quite comical at this point. Of course I am not saying that any of these pitchers should have felt bad for Holliday and grooved one like they were Evan Meek (real ones know). But to have seen basically one single mistake pitch up to this point in his budding career, and not a single one in five trips to plate at OPACY?
Just maddening for those of us waiting to explode in celebration at the first of what we expect will be a couple thousand hits in orange and black.
As mentioned at the top of this article, Holliday did ultimately get that elusive first hit on Sunday afternoon. And hey, look at that! A pitch that caught more than a sliver of the strike zone!
I hope someone was pointing out these pitch locations to Holliday as his frustration was surely building. Yes, major league pitchers are better than the minor leaguers he’s seen up to this point. That goes without saying. But they aren’t ALL THIS GOOD ALL THE TIME.
Here’s to many more mistakes coming Jackson’s way in the very near future.
