Joey Gallo causes Statcast glitch with upper deck blast (video)
Joey Gallo is getting an opportunity to play every day for the Texas Rangers, and he showed off his power Tuesday night.
Texas Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre is on the disabled list to start the season with a right calf strain, which has opened the door for top prospect Joey Gallo to start the season in the big leagues with a spot in the every day lineup.
Gallo has 152 home runs over five minor league seasons (1,736 at-bats), and had seven home runs over 53 major league games entering this year.
In the bottom of the second inning against the Cleveland Indians Tuesday night, Indians’ starter Carlos Carrasco started Gallo’s at-bat by missing the strike zone. With a man on first, throwing a strike was going to be important. Carrasco surely wants his 1-0 pitch back after this happened.
MLB’s Statcast was unable to register the exit velocity, launch angle or the distance of Gallo’s upper deck blast, but ESPN Stats and Info picked up some slack.
As the above tweet alluded to, Gallo’s 442-foot shot to the far reaches of the upper deck at Globe Life Park of Carrasco was the sixth of his eight big league home runs to travel 430 or more feet. So Gallo clearly has major league-level power, but it’s making contact that has been the issue.
Entering Tuesday night’s game, counting Opening Day, he had struck out 78 times in 157 plate appearances with the Rangers. Yes that’s essentially half the time, albeit in a limited sample.
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Beltre is not facing an extended absence, so Gallo may go back to Triple-A fairly quickly. But he does offer some position flexibility, with experience at first base and in left field, so more power displays like Tuesday night could lead to Gallo sticking around for a while.