Jackson Holliday’s long-enough home run is key in Orioles’ rainy win vs. Tigers

The scoreboard does not care whether Jackson Holliday hit that ball to the B&O Warehouse or the shortest part of left field. They count the same — a two-run home run from the 22-year-old making his first appearance at Camden Yards this year.

Still, it was quite an oddity to see where Holliday’s ball wound up. He drove it the opposite way, sending Detroit Tigers left fielder Riley Greene racing back to the wall. At the foul pole, where the wall is 333 feet away before it drastically retreats from the plate, Greene ran out of room. The ball didn’t.

Holliday’s home run ball sneaked inside the foul pole — no, really, inside the foul pole. Not around it, or over it, or any other descriptor. The foul poles at Camden Yards are lattice-work triangular prisms reaching toward the sky. And Holliday’s homer sneaked in just under the bottom rung and rested inside the prism until a fan grabbed the souvenir.

The 337-foot bomb was Holliday’s first homer of the season, and it was his second knock of the game. He returned this week after a stop-and-start recovery from a broken hamate bone and walked to the plate to “Mr. Blue Sky” by Electric Light Orchestra — the same song he used four years ago when he made his professional debut at an affiliate — and his deep-ish fly ball prodded the Orioles to a series-opening win, 7-4, through the rain Friday night.

“I saw Riley running back, and I was like, ‘Oh man, maybe he’s not going to catch it,” Holliday said, before wryly joking about the distance. “It might have been my farthest home run in my career. So we’ll take it.”

Holliday wasn’t alone in beating up on Jack Flaherty, the Tigers right-hander making his return to Camden Yards after a short post-deadline stint in Baltimore in 2023. Flaherty allowed a three-run homer to Pete Alonso — although an error earlier in the inning rendered those runs unearned. Flaherty finished with six runs (three earned) against him in 3 1/3 innings.

Flaherty’s time with the Orioles wasn’t a success. Baltimore acquired him to bolster the rotation amid a 101-win season, but he made seven starts (nine appearances) and produced a 6.75 ERA.

This season hasn’t been kind to Flaherty, either. He walked off the mound Friday with a 5.94 ERA. But too often the Orioles haven’t made a struggling pitcher pay, and while they stranded a runner in scoring position the first two frames, Alonso’s blast overcame an early deficit.

Left-hander Keegan Akin, acting as the opener, allowed a leadoff homer to Kevin McGonigle. Right-hander Chris Bassitt allowed three more runs. But the offense covered for those runs with blasts from Alonso and Holliday.

“That home run [from Holliday] was impressive in a lot of different ways,” manager Craig Albernaz said. “How it went underneath the foul pole, but also from our vantage point in the dugout, that ball could have hooked foul, but his swing path is so clean where the ball flight just stayed true. He had great at-bats all night.”

The opposite-field shot from Alonso in the third marked his 10th of the season. He became the first Orioles player to hit the double-digit home run mark in his first 51 games with the franchise since Tim Beckham, whose tally spanned the 2016 and 2017 seasons.

And Gunnar Henderson and Adley Rutschman, key pieces of this offense, each doubled and combined for five hits.

“There’s no secret. When Pete and Gunnar are just who they are, they have the ability to carry an entire offense, and it kind of showed up tonight,” Bassitt said. “It’s great when they’re both on, but even just one of them can do that.”

That offense hasn’t clicked frequently, but through the rain it delivered the pitching staff a lead. And Albernaz was determined to keep it with an early hook of Bassitt, who finished after 4 1/3 innings. In the sixth, once Wenceel Pérez doubled against Bassitt, Albernaz turned to his high-leverage relievers.

Right-hander Rico Garcia stranded Pérez, and right-handers Yennier Cano and Tyler Wells turned in clean frames, too. Then right-hander Anthony Nunez closed it out for his third save of the season, rebounding after allowing four runs in the series finale Wednesday against the Tampa Bay Rays.

After the game, Albernaz made note of the baserunning. Twice the Orioles went first to third on singles, and those aggressive moves led to runs. Leody Taveras’ extra 90 feet in the fourth inning allowed him to score on Flaherty’s balk. Henderson’s first-to-third scamper in the sixth led to an Alonso sacrifice fly.

Those are the little things Albernaz and his staff have discussed since spring training. As with many other facets of this team, they haven’t been consistently done. But when done right they make a difference.

“They have the ability in the box to change the game with one swing, and we know that. They’re so talented,” Albernaz said. “But, also, little things like that, it puts the pressure on the defense.”

As Holliday crossed the plate following his home run, he gave a shrug to the waiting Colton Cowser, as if admitting it was an unusual sight. Generally, after surgery for a broken hamate bone, a player’s power is the last thing to return. Holliday said he’s dealing with an odd sensation in his incision when he swings, too, and that it may remain for months.

“It helps when you hit it on the barrel, so I’m going to try to do that,” Holliday said this week.

Try he did. And it turned into a strong day at the plate that included one of the more unusual home runs this stadium has seen.

This article has been updated.