NEW YORK — Joey Gallo didn’t look any different walking from his locker to the middle of the clubhouse to do the Yankees’ last post-game interview of a long night at Yankee Stadium. The slugging left fielder had the same expressionless look on his face, the one fans see after his many strikeouts.
The message on the back of the black T-shirt that Gallo was sporting did sum up his first three weeks of the season:
“Never Quit. Live it.”
Gallo never quit and he was living the relief of finally hitting a homer after Tuesday night’s 12-8 survival against the pesky Baltimore Orioles, a bit of a breakout game that will be most remembered for Anthony Rizzo’s three homers.
“It’s hard work paying off,” Gallo said.
It was a lot more than that. As winning pitcher Luis Severino put it, “You know Gallo. Gallo is a homer, strikeout, walk guy, so he’s going to do that.”
Once again, Gallo has done a lot of striking out and some walking this year, but the homers dried up in his final 10 games of 2021 when he flunked his Yankees audition and he didn’t go deep in his first 16 this year. Heading into Tuesday, he’d gone 79 at-bats without a homer, then it was up to 80 counting his second-inning groundout to first base.
This was beyond frustration because Gallo is one of baseball’s premier sluggers. He hit 38 homers last year while leading the majors with 213 strikeouts and American League with 111 walks, the first 25 before his July 29 trade to the Yankees. He also has 41- and 40-homer seasons from his time with the Texas Rangers, which was the first 6 ½ years of his career. This year, he thought he should have hit a few heading into this week’s Orioles series, certainly not none.
“I think sometimes you get a little worried,” Gallo said. “You’re like, ‘Man, why are these balls not going out?’ I’ve hit some balls really good this year and they’ve been caught at the wall or warning tracks. But I always know. Last year I remember going through 15 or 20 games without an extra-base hit to open up in Texas. It’s a process. It’s a long season, so you understand that they’re going to come. You just have to keep working.”
Gallo finally hit one out in the fourth inning Tuesday, and this was a majestic opposite-field blast to left-center.
“It was a great swing on a changeup,” Rizzo said. “He goes the other way with it.”
The ball traveled and traveled all the out of the deepest part of Yankee Stadium for a 426-foot bomb that was way longer than any of three hit by hero-of-the-night Rizzo, whose longest was 378, and a good ways beyond the 392 footer that Aaron Judge belted to celebrate birthday No. 30.
“I knew I hit it really good, but I’ve hit a few balls here to center field that I thought I hit well, too, and they were caught,.” Gallo said. “So I wasn’t exactly sure (it was going out). It was good to see it happen.”
What happened next felt even better. After rounding the bases, Gallo returned to the Yankees dugout and received the silent treatment from teammates for a few seconds.
“I haven’t gotten that since my first home run in a big leagues,” Gallo said. “I didn’t expect them to do that, but I was laughing. I thought it was really funny.”
Gallo letting down his guard by laughing struck his teammates.
“I saw him smile,” Rizzo said. “I think it was the first time any of us have ever see him smile, so we were all pumped.”
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Although a quiet guy, Gallo is popular in the Yankees clubhouse. They genuinely like him. They’ve felt bad that Yankees fans have really been on him.
“Obviously, I wish I had a better start to the season, but it’s a long season and my teammates have had my back,” Gallo said.
Late in Tuesday’s game, Gallo felt some rare love from Yankees fans during his fourth at-bat. Before he struck out in the seventh with four runs in, a man on a third and one out, the crowd broke into a chant when the count went to 3-1.
“Jo-ey, Jo-ey, Jo-ey!”
“It was nice to get the positive reception,” Gallo said. “I’ve been a little while since I’ve gotten a positive reception. It was nice to hear them behind me and cheering me on. It felt good.”
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Gallo still is hitting .154 with a homer, two RBI and 23 strikeouts in 52 at-bats, but he’s 3-for-11 with a walk in his last three games.
“I’m not worried about Gallo because he’s going to hit homers, he’s going to walk and he’s going to strike out,” Severino said.
He’s on the board now with one homer.
“Hopefully that’s something that continues to get him settled,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “The last few games he’s had some important at-bats where he had a big RBI double. He had some hits and some walks. So hopefully he’s starting to get settled because when he does, he can really impact.”
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Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected].