Holliday stays busy at second base in exhibition opener, Suárez lacks sharpness (O's lose 10-5)

SARASOTA, Fla. – The exhibition games started today and Jackson Holliday kept working out.

He wasn't on the back fields. He was playing second base and fielding everything hit at him.

Holliday got the final out in the first inning on Darick Hall's grounder, made the play on Liover Peguero's ball in the second that Albert Suárez deflected, and handled Joshua Palacios' grounder to close out the inning.

The position no longer is new to Holliday and it seems to be coming more naturally to him.

"I'm feeling a lot more comfortable," he said. "Today was good. Got a lot of ground balls, a lot more than I think I did last spring training total, so happy about that. I'm a lot more comfortable, a lot more comfortable in practice, and to be able to get the first few ground balls out of the way is great."

Holliday had to ditch shortstop because the Orioles wanted Gunnar Henderson to play it full-time. He's watched other second basemen, including Andrés Giménez and Kolten Wong, a teammate last spring, and wants to emulate the crispness and sharpness, the clean and direct style, and "obviously just being as fast as possible on double play feeds, trying to get the ball to Gunnar as quick as possible and let him do his thing.

"That's kind of been the point of emphasis so far, and just continuing to work on that."

The offseason wasn't dedicated only to taking swings in the cage. Holliday fielded ground balls as often as the weather allowed in Oklahoma.

"Last year I took a little bit of a break, but this year, something I need to improve on and really emphasize is taking ground balls," he said.

Holliday was trying to break camp last spring and the Orioles made the difficult and unpopular decision to send him to the minor league side. He's on more solid footing despite his struggles at the plate. The club wants him to get the majority of starts at second.

"It's a little less uncertainty, I guess," he said. "Being able to make my debut and play and just come out there and enjoy it and continue to try to get better each and every day, and just really enjoy the process instead of, I guess, pushing to try to prove something. Obviously, I'm still trying to get better and show everyone the player I can be. Every single time I've gone to spring training it's been a completely different scenario and I'm happy to be in this one."

The Orioles don't want the bulked-up Holliday to focus on launching home runs. They will happen naturally. Get on base, be disruptive.

"Just hitting as many line drives as possible," he said. "I know talking to Hyder (manager Brandon Hyde), just trying to be a dynamic player and really just put the ball in play, hit low line drives, and if I pop up here and there, then great, but just try to hit as many line drives and doubles as possible and try to steal bases and just really be an all-around player."

That includes bunting for base hits.

"It's a thing I'm working on," he said. "Obviously, haven't bunted much in my life, but it's definitely a skill that needs to be developed."

* Albert Suárez made it through the first inning today while Yaqui Rivera warmed in the bullpen.

Action that early isn’t a good sign for a starter. And Rivera entered the game before Suárez completed the second.

Also not good.

Command was an issue for Suárez today in the Orioles’ first exhibition game. He threw 41 pitches with only 19 strikes in 1 2/3 innings and allowed two runs on three hits and two walks.

Suárez retired the first two batters on a grounder and fly ball, but Henry Davis doubled, Suárez threw a wild pitch, Nick Yorke walked and former Orioles outfielder DJ Stewart doubled off the right-center field fence to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead.

Hall ran the count full before grounding to Holliday. Suárez threw 26 pitches and only half were strikes.

Hyde let Suárez return for the second inning and the right-hander again retired the first two batters on a fly ball and grounder. Enmanuel Valdez lined a single into right field and Nick Gonzales walked to bring Hyde out of the dugout.

Rivera got a quick out to strand the runners.

“I was just throwing all my pitches, doing the best I can to make sure I’m ready for the season,” Suárez said. “Today was trying to throw every pitch in the strike zone and then have the feel for it.”

Suárez broke out his new pitch, a slurve, which is a combination slider and curveball.

“It feels good out of hand, but I think it was also a ball automatic for the hitter,” he said. “So that’s why they weren’t swinging.”

Suárez was pleased with his fastball velocity.

“I’m not tired, so that means that I’ve got more in the tank. So that’s a good feeling,” he said.

“Fastball’s good. Breaking balls, not so good. I need to work to make sure I throw more of them in the strike zone so hitters swing at them, and that’s what I’m going to be working on this week.”

Suárez is expected to break camp as a reliever unless the Orioles suffer an injury among their starters.

“You saw that last year, how he recovered well,” Hyde said this morning. “He’s done it before, he’s kind of bounced around from rotation to bullpen. He picked us up in a lot of different ways last year. Was outstanding when he was in the rotation. We’re definitely stretching him out as a starter, see how camp goes. Hopefully, we have decisions to make at the end of camp.”

* Keegan Akin retired his first two batters in the third inning, including a strikeout, but Stewart homered to right field. A revenge game for the former first-round draft pick.

Bryan Baker retired the side in order in the fourth and Justin Armbruester did the same in the seventh.

Kade Strowd joined the party of pitchers who retired the first two batters and ran into some trouble. He issued back-to-back walks in the fifth and struck out Stewart with the count full. Corbin Martin surrendered a leadoff double to Endy Rodríguez in the sixth and a tie-breaking, two-run homer to Matt Gorski.

* Emmanuel Rivera, outrighted off the 40-man roster, hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning to reduce the Pirates' lead to 6-5.

Ryan Mountcastle and Gary Sánchez opened the second inning with singles and the Orioles tied the game on a Carmen Mlodzinski wild pitch and Ramón Laureano single up the middle. Holliday, who grounded into a force, scored from second base and joked later about his shoes not being tied tightly, which could have cost him.

Cedric Mullins led off the third with a walk and pinch-runner Enrique Bradfield Jr. was thrown out trying to steal. Mountcastle drew a leadoff walk in the fourth, Sánchez followed with a walk, Laureano reached on an error after Holliday struck out, and Dylan Carlson tied the game with a sacrifice fly.

Dylan Beavers had two line drive hits off Tomoyuki Sugano in live batting practice and he singled today.

* The game drew an announced sellout crowd of 7,628.

* Gorski hit a grand slam off Dylan Heid in the ninth to give him six RBIs and the Pirates a 10-5 win.

Hyde was asked about Suárez.

"I thought he had a good fastball. The offspeed stuff was just missing below the zone a little bit," Hyde said.

"Good stuff for the first time out, first game. Just his off-speed for me was just a little bit inconsistent."

Hyde also noted how Holliday was busier at second base today than last spring.

"We waited like 20 games last year before he got a ground ball," Hyde said.