Jackson Holliday may have his old man to thank for his recent run of hot hitting.
The Baltimore Orioles infielder Holliday continued his rampage at the plate on Sunday, going 3-for-4 with two RBIs (albeit in an 11-6 loss to the Kansas City Royals). He is now hitting .407 over his last 10 games, improving his season-long batting average by nearly 60 points to .273.
A fairly interesting theory has since emerged about Holliday’s recent surge. The Orioles television broadcast noted during a game on Apr. 23 that Matt Holliday, Jackson’s father, had spoken to him about something that he had recently noticed in Jackson’s swing.
Apr. 23 was the exact date that Jackson’s scorching 10-game run at the plate officially began. Here are the updated statistics (through Sunday’s game) of Jackson’s hitting numbers ever since then.
The elder Holliday, now 45 years old, certainly knows his stuff when it comes to hitting. Matt played in Major League Baseball himself from 2004-18, making seven All-Star teams and winning a World Series title with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011. Performance at the plate was also a particular area of expertise for Matt, who was a four-time Silver Slugger Award winner, the NL batting champion in 2007, and a career .299 hitter.
As for Jackson, 21, he was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft but still has room to grow after hitting .189 as a rookie last year. Matt has been coaching up Jackson from a very young age, and that still continues now that Jackson is an MLB sophomore with the Orioles.
