Jackson Holliday makes ridiculous Orioles history, joining another friend turned foe

Okay everybody, the joke's finally over. Jackson Holliday is here and he's performing as everyone expected him to rather than the imposter who struggled earlier in the season.

When Holliday was brought up to the big leagues the first time, many expected a .375 OBP All-Star from the jump. They expected Holliday to start in the Baltimore Orioles infield as a 20-year-old simply because the level of prospect that he was. Unfortunately, that was far from the truth as the young shortstop put together a disastrous 34 at-bats before being moved back to Triple-A.

Thanks to his repeated dominance in Triple-A, some injuries, and a trade of Connor Norby, Holliday has found himself back in Baltimore and this time, he's playing as everybody expected him to.

And his return to the big leagues has come with some next level dominance to begin his second stint in the big leagues.

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Jackson Holliday joins elite company with three big flies in six games

Since being brought back up, Holliday is 8-for-20 with a double and three home runs. He's scored six runs, walked twice and been hit by a pitch. This stretch of six games includes an active six game on base streak as well as three multi hit games.

But the most impressive aspect of his game has been how hard and how far he's hitting the ball.

Holliday joins Manny Machado and Boog Powell as the only Orioles players 21 or younger to homer three times in a six-game span. Given the fact that Holliday is still 20, he will more than likely find himself on this list two or three times before his 22nd birthday.

Holliday is hitting the ball so hard, registering 100 MPH exit velocities on a regular occasion. Even a lot of his outs have been barreled baseballs hit right at a defender. The 20-year-old looks like he belongs in Baltimore this time and that's exactly what the Orioles needed.

They couldn't have shown more trust in Holliday this year. With their season and the AL East on the line, Jorge Mateo got injured. Connor Norby was next in line to start at second, but the Orioles showed their confidence in the 20-year-old Holliday by dealing Norby to Miami, opening the spot for their top prospect to take over.

It was a very gutsy decision by Mike Elias, but Holliday is proving them very correct in their confidence in him.