LAS VEGAS — Four ceremonial first pitches were thrown Saturday at Cashman Field before the Chicago Cubs beat the Texas Rangers 5-1, and a local boy caught all four.
Joey Gallo isn’t as big a star as Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan or comedian George Wallace, but the prized prospect from Las Vegas was in the spotlight during the opening game of Big League Weekend.His biggest splash, though, came in the seventh inning when he hit a towering double that short-hopped the wall in center field. The wind was blowing in, and the wall is 433 feet from home.Gallo, who the Rangers selected with the 39th overall pick last year, was later thrown out at home to end the inning, but there was nothing he would trade from his first day in his hometown wearing a big-league uniform.“Yeah, that was fun,” he said. “It was good being in Vegas, in front of the home crowd, to get a hit. It was a pretty neat experience.”The Rangers brought another Las Vegas product, Drew Robinson, on this weekend trip. The organization is high on him, too, but Gallo dropped jaws with 21 homers in 59 games in his first pro season.His towering drive Saturday was the Rangers’ highlight at the plate against the Cubs, who got five scoreless innings from Jeff Samardzija. Chicago scored three runs in five innings against Nick Tepesch, who continues to stay in the hunt to be the club’s No. 5 starter.The Cubs leadoff hitter reached in Tepesch’s last four innings, including a Scott Hairston homer to start the fourth.“I didn’t get the leadoff guys, and that hurts you when you do that,” said Tepesch, who threw an additional 20 pitches in the bullpen after his exit. “I felt strong all game, and I still felt strong in the bullpen.”Jeff Wilson, 817-390-7760 Twitter: @JeffWilson
