CLEVELAND — Jackson Holliday’s first stint in the majors didn’t go as anyone planned.
But, when he walked into the visitors’ clubhouse at Progressive Field on Thursday, a familiar device gave him comfort: the Golden Tee arcade game.
He’s played it before, in St. Louis when his father, Matt Holliday, was playing for the Cardinals, and in Norfolk, when he was in Triple-A. He picked the game again after a tough stretch with the Tides, and his hitting improved.
So on Thursday, before his second game since being recalled, he headed over to fire up the machine again. An iffy strike zone deprived him of quality at-bats that night, but he was hit by a pitch and scored a run. He played the game on Friday and Saturday as well, and had the first and second multihit games of his career.
On Sunday, he hit his second major league home run as the Orioles beat the Guardians 9-5. After dropping the first two games of the series, the Orioles took command of the last two to split the series with the best in baseball.
“Showing a lot more confidence,” manager Brandon Hyde said of Holliday. “The way he can stay on the baseball is much improved. ... He’s a really, really young player. But it’s great to see him swing the bat this way this series.”
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Holliday went 2-for-34 in his first 10 major league games early this season. He’s 7-for-18 with two walks in five games since being recalled, with three consecutive multihit games — and multiple course records on Golden Tee.
He’s seeing the ball better, he said, and he’s more relaxed this time.
“Honestly, a whole lot more comfortable,” Holliday said. “Just trusting myself and my approach and just trying to have fun. Even when I’m getting out, I feel like I’m hitting the ball hard and putting together good at-bats, which is important.”
The decreased fanfare doesn’t hurt either. The debut of the No. 1 prospect was a spectacle featuring a giant media scrum, his family on the field pregame and a T-shirt for his first home game.
This time, he just shows up and does his job.
“Yeah, I think definitely just having my feet under me and being able to come to the ballpark and have a normal schedule and just be able to go out there and play and have fun and kind of put everything else to the side and just enjoy being out there,” he said.
Holliday’s home run in the fourth inning Sunday gave the Orioles a 4-2 lead. Gunnar Henderson, who also had a hard time adjusting to the majors in his rookie season, hit his 29th home run later that inning to make it 6-2.
Corbin Burnes gave up a three-run homer in the fifth as the Guardians moved within one, making it Burnes’ worst start in an Orioles uniform. He gave up five runs — four earned — in five innings with five stolen bases.
“Well, I think he’s a human being, so every once in a while he’s going to leave a changeup there for [Josh] Naylor,” Hyde said. “Just made a bad pitch in a 2-0 spot there. Besides that, it was pretty good. His stuff was, good cutter, good sinker, good curveball.
With Gregory Soto, who allowed four runs and recorded just one out in his Orioles debut on Friday, warming, the Orioles added two more runs in the top of the sixth to give them a bit of security. Soto fared better this time, giving up one hit in two-thirds of an inning, the Orioles getting lucky that a safe call at second wasn’t overturned. Burch Smith, Yennier Cano, Cionel Pérez and Seranthony Domínguez wrapped up the game.
Four players in addition to Holliday had multihit games, including Eloy Jiménez, who has five hits in his first two starts with the team. After scoring seven combined runs in the first two games, the Orioles had 16 in the last two games to get the wins.
“It’s tough to be consistent offensively, but the quality of the at-bat was much better these past two days,” Hyde said. “Give our guys a lot of credit for getting a split out of here. That’s a tough place to play, a tough team to play. Kind of getting our butts kicked the first two games, the way we responded and swung the bat the last two games has been nice.”
