Holloway faces minimum for Muckdogs

For the most part this season, hitters haven't seen first base against Jordan Holloway unless he's given it to them. On Sunday afternoon, he wasn't feeling so charitable.

The 19-year-old rght-hander faced the minimum over six innings, working around one hit and one walk, in Class A Short Season Batavia's 1-0 blanking of Brooklyn at MCU Park. 

Holloway, a 2014 20th-round pick, is the youngest qualified starter in the New York-Penn League and his inexperience has shown as he's struggled to locate the strike zone. He entered Sunday with more walks (29) than strikeouts (24), including a 9-to-17 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 15 innings in his previous four starts.

Sunday marked a sharp change. The 6-foot-5 righty allowed only two baserunners while recording four strikeouts. He pounded the strike zone with his fastball early, counting on the leverage he generates with his big frame to force contact on the ground.

The Cyclones rolled into 10 groundouts against Holloway, who induced seven straight rollers during one stretch between the second and fourth innings.

"I think my fastball is a good ground-ball pitch, just because of my height and the tilt I get on the ball," he said. "I can get through the ball well and being 6-foot-5 helps. It kind of just drops down into the zone more, so it's not really flat. It drives down, and so obviously, they get the bat on top of the ball."

Holloway didn't allow a baserunner until the fourth, when he allowed a leadoff single to Emmanuel Zabala. The right-hander threw over to first a handful of times and picked Zabala off one batter later. He finished the fourth by striking out David Thompson.

The Colorado native issued a walk in the fifth but induced a ground-ball double play from the next batter, then got two groundouts and a strikeout in the sixth.

Holloway has been searching for the strike zone throughout his pro career, and those struggles have come to a head this season. To address that, he and the Muckdogs coaching staff have several small adjustments to his delivery.

The righty has stopped lifting his hands over his head in the windup and has lengthened his stride toward home plate. He's trying to keep his hands tighter to his body so his "arm is in sync with my body going forward."

Everything clicked for Holloway against Brooklyn, leading to the best start of his pro career.

"I was just having more confidence in throwing strikes and having trust in my stuff," he said. "Mechanically, we tweaked a couple small things, just to get more smooth."

Holloway lowered his ERA to 3.08 in eight starts for Batavia -- he also went 0-1 with a 7.00 ERA in two starts for Class A Greensboro.

"This start feels great," Holloway said. "I had been struggling with walks and what-not in my past. It feels great to throw strikes and be confident with all my pitches."

Ryley MacEachern and Steven Farnworth closed out the Muckdogs' second shutout of the season. MacEachern allowed a hit and a walk over 1 2/3 innings and Farnworth followed with 1 1/3 perfect frames for his eighth save.