Baltimore Orioles top prospect Jackson Holliday will be back in the lineup on Tuesday night after playing in just one of the past three games.
The goal is for the Orioles infielder to relax and produce quality plate appearances in the game against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim, Calif.
“I want him to take four good at-bats,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “Whatever happens, happens. It’s all about being process-oriented, which is hard to do when you look up at the scoreboard and see what your batting average is.”
Holliday, 20, is batting .033, going 1-for-30 with 16 strikeouts to begin his big-league career.
“It’s not easy on this stage to get off to the start that you want to,” Hyde said. “He’s just trying to do too much. You can see that with some of the at-bats.”
While Holliday is seeking a turnaround, the Orioles want to keep things going. They’ve won three games in a row and have victories in six of their last seven road games.
It’s the opposite for the Angels, who lost 4-2 in Monday night’s series opener despite loading the bases with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning.
“It got better. We ended up at least putting some runs on the board, just wasn’t enough,” said Angels manager Ron Washington, whose team began a nine-game homestand. “We gave ourselves an opportunity there in the ninth, but we just didn’t get it done.”
The Angels have only nine runs during a five-game losing streak, with five runs coming vs. Cincinnati on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Craig Kimbrel’s 423rd career save Monday put him alone in seventh place on the all-time list.
Baltimore has right-hander Grayson Rodriguez (3-0, 2.63 ERA) lined up as its starting pitcher Tuesday night. He has worked into the sixth inning in every game in which he has pitched this season and has surrendered two runs in each of his last three outings.
Rodriguez is 2-1 with a 6.46 ERA in three career meetings with Los Angeles. He surrendered home runs to Chad Wallach, Shohei Ohtani and Randal Grichuk last season — and none of those players are on the current Angels roster.
Right-hander Griffin Canning (0-3, 8.05) gets the call for the Angels. He lost Thursday at Tampa Bay despite logging a season-high 5 1/3 innings, giving up two runs on four hits.
Canning’s first loss of the season came March 30 at Baltimore, against which he surrendered five runs in five innings. Gunnar Henderson led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run off Canning, who is 0-4 with a 10.53 ERA in five career outings against the Orioles. Baltimore has dinged him for 32 hits in 19 2/3 innings.
The Orioles made some position tweaks in Monday’s series opener, with Ramon Urias playing first base for the first time this season. Jorge Mateo was used as the second baseman for the sixth time.
Part of those moves came because first baseman Ryan Mountcastle was out of the lineup with knee soreness.
Baltimore also made off-field moves Monday, with outfielder Austin Hays going on the 10-day injured list with a strained left calf. Hays had started 11 games, but he’s batting just .111. The Orioles added catcher David Banuelos to the active roster.
–Field Level Media
