TORONTO — The fastball from Kevin Gausman sat on the inner third of the plate, waist height, serving as an invitation for Jackson Holliday. Last year, when Holliday reached the majors with the Orioles, the infielder didn’t punish the punishable pitches at nearly the rate he did in the minor leagues.

That was last year. And, although the 2025 season is two days old, his inside-out swing against Gausman’s heater is a strong indication that Holliday is more prepared for his first full season in the majors.

Holliday, with a toe-tap mechanic he adopted largely because of his difficulties catching up to the fastball, turned around Gausman’s pitch and clattered it into the left-center seats. It was his first home run of the season, and it was one of the most impressive swings of his career thus far.

“My buddy texted me and was like, ‘What was that?‘” said Holliday, who was surprised himself by his opposite-field power. “I’m like, ‘That’s a good question. I don’t really know.’ But hopefully, if I can stick to that approach of hitting line drives to the gap like that, I’ll be in a good spot.”

Even if that ball hadn’t left the yard — one of the few bright spots in Baltimore’s 8-2 loss at Rogers Centre against the Toronto Blue Jays — the hard contact against a heater left in the strike zone is encouraging.

Last season, Holliday produced negative-0.98 runs above average against fastballs per 100 pitches faced, according to FanGraphs. He made hard contact against fastballs 74.3% of the time he connected against four-seamers, but the results were still scattershot because his whiff rate was 32.9%.

His in-zone whiff rate was even more of a concern. Holliday swung and missed 24.3% of the time against any pitch in the zone last season. That rose to 26.2% of his swings against in-zone fastballs, according to Statcast.

That’s an area Holliday began to address near the end of last season, when he ditched his leg kick for a toe tap that he felt would improve his timing. With his foot planted earlier, Holliday is ready to jump on a fastball.

“That’s the goal, especially when you get into hitter’s counts,” Holliday said. “That’s kind of one of the main reasons I went to the toe tap and trying to cut down on swing and miss and foul balls and just square the ball up as much as possible, especially in hitter’s counts.”

For many hitters, off-speed pitches cause the most trouble. Gunnar Henderson, for instance, needed about two months in 2023 before he began to punish breaking balls in the zone. Those will still challenge Holliday (he hit .118 against breaking balls last year), but that learning curve makes his production against fastballs all the more important.

Holliday’s development is one of the major stories surrounding the Orioles. When he first arrived in the majors, he hung around for only 10 games. The 21-year-old managed two hits in that span while striking out 18 times. His whiff rate improved as the season went on, but he still hit .218 with 51 strikeouts over his final 50 games.

Holliday attacked his offseason work, though, with a combination of speed training, weightlifting and ground beef on the menu. He finished last season at 188 pounds and entered spring training at 200. He is hitting the ball harder on average, he said, and he showed that power Friday.

At 109 mph, Holliday’s homer off Gausman was the second-hardest-hit ball of his career, narrowly missing the 109.2 mph exit velocity from his grand slam at Camden Yards on July 31. It also traveled the second farthest of any of his hits so far.

“That was really, really impressive,” manager Brandon Hyde said. “Really talented guy. He’s super young. He’s still learning the big leagues, and taking Kevin Gausman deep like that, it’s impressive.”

What made it all the more impressive compared to last year’s 439-foot blast was that it wasn’t on his pull side. He sat on a fastball in a hitter’s count, got one, and ripped it deeper than he imagined it might go.

“I squared it up, and I was like, ‘Hopefully that’s got a chance,’” Holliday said.

With more swings like that, it’s Holliday who has a chance to make fastballs his fancy.