Texas Rangers’ Joey Gallo tries to carry on through steady bad luck at the plate
If it wasn’t for bad luck, Joey Gallo might have no luck at all.
Take his first at-bat Tuesday, when he sent a high fly ball down the right-field line. He didn’t hit it far enough to leave Globe Life Field, but hit it in a spot where the right fielder wasn’t going to catch it.
The only San Diego Padres fielder who had a chance was third baseman Manny Machado.
Say what?
Machado had shifted from third base into shallow right field against the left-handed- and pull-hitting Gallo, and Machado was the only one standing between Gallo and extra bases to start the second inning.
He tracked it down, for the deepest catch by an infielder since MLB’s Statcast was launched in 2015.
“My reaction was, ‘Is that the effin’ third baseman?’” said Gallo, the Texas Rangers right fielder. “And it was.”
That was a new one for Gallo — a third baseman making a catch against him just shy of the right-field corner — but the end result was nothing new. Gallo loses a bunch of hits in the age of defensive shifts.
And it still stings pretty much every time.
“I don’t think you ever get used to it,” Gallo said. “It’s a constant reminder. You see a righty hit a line drive to left field and you’re like, ‘Ugh, why couldn’t I be a righty?’ And then you get up and hit a line drive to right field and the shortstop is playing short right and catches it. In your head you’re 0 for 4 but you could have had two hits and helped your team win.
“I’m not complaining, but it is tough. It’s tough to be taught that hitting the ball up the middle is a hit your whole life and now you’re out every single time you do it. It’s tough to deal with especially when you hit the ball hard or things are going well for you.”
Gallo entered Wednesday’s game at San Diego batting only .214 but with an .889 OPS. It was a modest hitting streak, which included a three-run homer Tuesday, but he had had been 0 for 17 before that.
He still strikes out at a high rate, 33.7% of his plate appearances so far this season, though he has trimmed the rate he chases pitches out of the strike zone (career-low 20.4%) while upping his walk percentage (16.3%).
Teams have shifted against Gallo in 80 of his 85 plate appearances this season. That 94.1% shift rate is actually lower than the 95.9% in 2019, when Logan Morrison was the only MLB player with a higher percentage, 97.4%, but with 255 fewer plate appearances.
Five players this season have been shifted more than Gallo, who said that he tries to hit the ball in the air more to combat the shifts. A lot of times, he said, the only way to get a hit to right field is to hit it over the fence.
“You’ve got a third baseman in right field nowadays, so it’s a little tough to get hits for a lefty,” he said. “You’ve got to hit it over the fence or on the ground to left field.”
Manager Chris Woodward doesn’t want Gallo to feel as if he has to homer every time to help the Rangers. His team-leading 12 walks have helped spark rallies or extend them, and he has shaken loose from his funk with some minor tweaks to his mechanics.
Woodward just wants Gallo to continue hitting the ball hard and sticking to the approach that has allowed him to do that the past two seasons more than he did in his previous four seasons.
“I like where Joey’s at right now,” Woodward said. “He’s righted the ship and he’s having quality at-bats. He hit a big homer yesterday. We need him to continue doing that and understand that his production comes from the fear of the long balls, hitting the long ball and just from being the centerpiece in the middle of our lineup.”
This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 6:12 PM.
