Holliday's first major league homer is a grand slam as O's beat Blue Jays

On the first full day after the trade deadline, Orioles executive vice president and general manager Mike Elias expressed optimism that his roster was “fortified,” his pitching staff improved and that his team has “as good a shot as anybody.”

This morning the O’s began the process of retooling their roster after the flurry of deadline trades for the stretch run and trying to turn a recent small stretch of winning into a larger one.

With three wins in their past four games scoring 29 runs, the O’s took the field amid the Baltimore sunshine today looking for yet another American League East series win.

Ryan Mountcastle’s two-run triple to right in the last of the first got the Orioles off to a good start. They built an early 3-0 lead.

The deadline deals opened the door for Jackson Holliday’s return to this team. He electrified the crowd today when his first major league homer was a grand slam in the last of the fifth. It opened an 8-3 lead and led to a Holliday curtain call. The crowd was on its feet and roaring for Holliday, who went 2-for-34 with the Orioles in 10 April games.

Maybe these new-look Orioles with the 20-year-old phenom back on the roster are going to work out.

They took three of four from Toronto with a 10-4 win as six different players drove in runs in front of 25,528 to wrap up a 4-3 homestand at Oriole Park. 

Now 65-44, the Orioles are 23-10 in AL East games and now are 7-1-2 on the year in 10 division series. Nothing like an AL East opponent to help the Orioles turn this thing around.

Holliday became the third Oriole to hit a grand slam as his first MLB homer. He joins Fritz Connally on April 19, 1985 at Toronto and Frank Baker on Sept. 28, 1973 versus Cleveland.

But even as they won today, the Orioles hope they didn’t lose another player to injury. Right before Holliday hit his slam, third baseman Jordan Westburg was plunked by a pitch, a 95 mph fastball, near his right wrist. He stayed in the game then but when the Orioles took the field in the sixth, Ramon Urias had replaced him at third base.

Holliday’s slam was hit on an 0-2 slider off right-hander Yerry Rodríguez and was absolutely crushed. The homer went onto Eutaw Street and was blasted 439 feet by Holliday, who hit 10 homers in 349 plate appearances this season at Triple-A Norfolk.

Holliday had grounded out in the second and fourth innings before his blast highlighted the O’s five-run fifth that included Anthony Santander’s single to score James McCann, who had doubled.

In the O's sixth, the inning after he hit his slam, Holliday just missed hitting a three-run homer down the left-field line. The ball hit right near the foul pole, but was ruled foul via replay and he struck out. He lined to left in the eighth for a 1-for-5 afternoon. 

Right-hander Grayson Rodriguez had a strong start to his day with four strikeouts in two scoreless on just 24 pitches. But he then allowed single runs in innings three to six. They included Addison Barger’s solo homer in the third and RBI double an inning later. In the sixth, a run scored on Gunnar Henderson’s error at shortstop. Henderson made two more errors today at short and has seven in his past seven games.

The O’s led 3-0 today after the second inning. Santander singled with one out in the first and Henderson walked. With two down. Mountcastle drove one to the wall in right to score the runners and reach third with his second triple of the year.  

Colton Cowser extended his hitting streak 13 games with a solo homer to right in the second. He hit No. 16 a distance of 425 feet for the 3-0 lead.

After Barger’s homer in the third, the O’s got that run back in the home half as Henderson tripled and Ryan O’Hearn scored him with a sac fly. It was a 4-1 lead.

The lead expanded and it turned into a party when Holliday blasted his grand slam.

The O’s final run scored on Henderson’s RBI single in the seventh for the 10-4 margin. He began the day without a homer in his last 11 games and with just one the last 20 games. But he had two hits, scored twice and drove in a run.

This was the fourth game this year where the O’s hit two or more triples. They hit three on June 9 at Tampa Bay.

Now the Orioles head to Cleveland to start a four-game series on Thursday. The starters for the series are TBA. It could be that newly acquired lefty Trevor Rogers makes his O’s debut in that game.

A look at Holliday's slam here and curtain call here.