Holliday soars to new heights for IronBirds

Only Mother Nature could stop Jackson Holliday on Tuesday.

But the No. 3 prospect in baseball per MLB Pipeline still managed to rack up a career-high six RBIs while falling a single short of the cycle through five frames in High-A Aberdeen's rain-shortened 8-7 loss to Winston-Salem.

Holliday got off to a quick start, knocking in leadoff hitter Max Wagner, the 13th-ranked Orioles prospect, with a two-run homer to right field off No. 16 White Sox prospect Jared Kelley. It was Holliday's fifth homer of the season, his third since being promoted to the IronBirds on April 24.

The first overall pick in the 2022 Draft met up with the right-hander again in the third, lining the first pitch he saw in the frame to left and plating two runs.

When Holliday came to the plate in the fourth, Haylen Green had just relieved Kelley. On an 0-2 count against the southpaw, the 19-year-old drove the ball to right, racing around the bases for his third triple of the year -- his second with Aberdeen -- and two more RBIs.

Holliday was due up in the sixth, needing just a single for the first cycle of his career. But in the bottom of the fifth, storms around Truist Stadium forced a delay, and ultimately a rainout, soon after Winston-Salem took the lead for the first time of the night.

Nevertheless, Baltimore's No. 1 prospect seems to have cracked the code for slugging at the High-A level. Of his 20 hits for Aberdeen across 17 games, only eight have been for extra bases -- but three came in his latest contest.

Since his promotion to Aberdeen, Holliday leads his team in batting average (.345), on-base percentage (.472) and slugging (.621) for players with a mininimum of 20 at-bats.

So the forecast definitely is calling for success.