The date is April 21, 2019. Easter Sunday baseball. Divisional and in-state rivals Texas Rangers and Houston Astros are squaring off for the sixth time in the annual Silver Boot Series.
Joey Gallo steps up to the play in the bottom of the fourth inning. The Rangers are up 9-1 and are threatening again with runners on second and third base. A perfect time for Gallo to rip one over the shift (again) and send in two more runs. Gallo swings at the first pitch, popping a ball high and towards the warning track. Tony Kemp backs up a little and makes the catch. Danny Santana tags up, scoring to make it 10-1 Rangers.
Average play in game number 20 of a long MLB season. Right?
Wrong.
That baseball was collected and probably will be on a shelf somewhere in Joey Gallo’s house. Why? It was his first sacrifice fly after 1,137 plate appearances. According to Tim Kurkjian, only one other position player took longer to hit a sacrifice fly. Steve Sax took 1,388.
What has Gallo done in those 1,388 plate appearances? He is a career .208 hitter, with 96 home runs, 209 RBI, and a .832 slugging average. According to Baseball Reference, Gallo has 248 combined fly ball, pop fuly, or lineouts. Never once was it deep enough or with a runner on third base.
His career has been somewhat criticized the past year or so, with fans not being that happy. Gallo has done nothing but shut people up so far though. His .281 BA is the highest of his career by far, by what really is impressive is how he is getting on base. He is beating the huge shift being put on him continually, hitting two out of his three doubles, a triple, four homers and 10 RBIs when the ball goes to right field.
His home runs lately? Absolute bombs
His .313 BABIP is an outstanding number too that shows when making contact with the ball, he is getting on base. The strikeout rate is also down a little bit this year, from near 36 percent, to about 33 percent. The best part? He has been Mr. Clutch for the Rangers so far this year. He has five game winning RBIs for the team, that number leads the entire American League and second in all of baseball.
Gallo will continue to go on this tear as the Rangers are proving to be a sneaky team in the early part of this baseball season. Hopefully if given the chance, a sac fly or two will pop up in the stat sheet as well. To all the people complaining about how he is not hitting the ball to the opposite field, stop it. I would say he is doing just fine. As if you would rather him hit an opposite field single compared to shift beating plays like this.