Joey Gallo helping Texas Rangers hitters produce. Here’s how they can repay the favor
The most exciting player in the Texas Rangers’ lineup is Joey Gallo.
The potential for the damage he could inflict on a baseball makes him the one player whose plate appearances fans don’t want to miss.
The visit to the concession stand can wait. So can watching that all-important Tik Tok. Bladders can survive a few more minutes.
But the excitement has waned this season, as 57% of his plate appearances have ended with a walk (23) or a strikeout (35). Only twice has he connected for a home run, though both have been spectacular in their own way.
His most recent blast came Tuesday, a 394-foot laser that left Gallo’s bat at 114.3 mph, the hardest-hit ball by a Rangers player in nearly two years.
More are coming, and the Rangers hope sooner than the career-worst 20-game homer-less drought he endured between his first and second this season.
That seems likely, but Gallo refuses to budge from the ultra-patient approach that has made him the American League leader in walks. That’s a good thing.
Opposing pitchers, meanwhile, seem unwilling to budge from their approach of not giving Gallo anything to hit.
Something will have to give, and there’s one way the Rangers can help.
Get runners on base ahead of him, especially first base, and keep the hitters behind him doing damage of their own.
“If there’s a base open, they have an escape route because they don’t have to worry about throwing you a strike because they can attack the next guy,” Gallo said. “And that’s not to bash the next guy. That’s how the game goes.
“When guys are getting on, and there’s a lot of pressure, a pitcher’s got to start making pitches. And, now, with the guys behind me doing so much damage, there’s no real easy out right now for our lineup. It’s going to help everybody in the long run.”
To that end, the Rangers had a new No. 2 hitter Wednesday, Nick Solak. He responded by reaching three times, though Gallo couldn’t take advantage as he failed to reach base for the first time this season.
Solak was back there again Thursday as the Rangers opened a four-game series against the Boston Red Sox at Globe Life Field and former Rangers left-hander Martin Perez. Adolis Garcia was penciled into the cleanup spot, with his right-handed bat breaking up the left-handed bats of Gallo and first baseman Nate Lowe.
Lowe hit a three-run homer Monday in the first-inning following a Gallo walk. Lowe was tied for the MLB lead in RBIs with 22 entering Thursday, and Garcia is the reigning American League Player of the Week.
“You want your best guys at the top and just one after another, the guys who are getting on base and doing damage, to all the back to back to back to back,” manager Chris Woodward said. “It gives us the chance to really put some crooked innings up.”
After that, it’s up to Gallo.
When he has seen good pitches to hit, he hasn’t done enough with them.
Even he has wondered if he’s been too patient, especially with two strikes against him.
“You want to hit the ball and we work on hitting the ball so much, and as a little kid you just want to hit when you hold a bat in your hand,” Gallo said. ”You have to be ... OK with taking your walks, and I’ve always valued walks really highly.
“It’s not ideal to go up there and think, ‘Yeah, I’m probably going to walk this at-bat.’ You want to think about getting a pitch in the zone and hammering it, and that’s what I have to really keep thinking about — that that’s going to happen and I can’t miss it when it does. I feel like I have missed a few opportunities in the last week, last couple of weeks that I didn’t get a pitch to hit and I missed it, maybe being a little too passive.”
But the more the Rangers get on base ahead of him and the more Lowe and Garcia keep producing behind him, the morethey will help Gallo get more chances.
This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 4:18 PM.
