PHILADELPHIA — How welcome was Joey Gallo‘s slump-busting efficiency on Saturday night time? Forget two residence runs, the Twins outfielder hadn’t even recorded two hits in a sport since June 27.
Gallo tied a profession excessive with 4 hits — almost as many as he had in all the month of July (six) — together with two homers, 4 RBIs and a stroll to guide a dominating 8-1 win for the Twins at Citizens Bank Park.
Gallo’s breakout got here on the excellent time for his workforce. The Twins (61-58) snapped a four-game shedding streak and upped their AL Central result in 4 1/2 video games over second-place Cleveland. The Guardians have misplaced two in a row on walk-offs towards Tampa Bay.
“We want to win,” Gallo mentioned. “We want to make the playoffs. Everyone cares about each other. We’ve been with each other for six months, seven months straight. You want to have success. You want to help these guys win, but you want [your teammates] to have success, too. This isn’t a hobby, this is life.”
Plenty of different guys had success for the Twins. Carlos Correa homered and prolonged his hitting streak to eight video games.
Pablo López struck out seven over six scoreless innings of four-hit ball. He now has 180 strikeouts, eclipsing the profession excessive of 174 that he had in 2022. With the win and 6 scoreless innings, López improves to 3-0 in August with an ERA of 0.47.
But the massive story was Gallo, who entered the night time 5-for-49 (.102) with 30 strikeouts over his earlier 22 video games. He labored a 3-2 stroll after a few foul balls within the second inning.
In the fourth, he hit a wall-scraping residence run to left to increase his workforce’s result in 3-0. It was his second residence run in 4 video games following a 16-game stretch and not using a lengthy ball.
“It’s tough not playing great,” mentioned Gallo. “But on the finish of the day, it’s baseball and you get one other sport tomorrow, often. I’m form of a jokester, however I’m severe about baseball and I’m a aggressive individual.
“So I simply attempt to be the identical daily. It’s laborious, however that’s simply a part of being a superb teammate, a profitable participant {and professional}.”
When Gallo lined a single to left off the wall within the sixth, it assured him his seventh multi-hit sport of the 12 months, however simply his second since May 16. He had recorded greater than two hits simply as soon as this season, on April 2, the third sport of the 12 months.
It had been principally struggles since then, however his supervisor mentioned that Gallo has remained himself all through.
“He’s an enjoyable player to be around,” mentioned supervisor Rocco Baldelli. “He’s a terrific teammate. He’s obtained a terrific humorousness. He works laborious. He does every little thing he’s imagined to do. So I believe the blokes do get excited and have some enjoyable with him when he’s swinging like this.”
Gallo’s huge blast got here within the seventh, when he stepped up with two on and two outs. The Twins held a 5-0 lead and a 97.2% win chance on the time. But chances don’t all the time matter towards the Phillies (65-53), the hottest-hitting workforce within the league, who scored 13 runs towards the Twins the night time earlier than.
Gallo fell behind 0-2, then took two pitches to even the rely earlier than hammering a slider to right-center. The dinger traveled 412 toes and had an exit velocity of 108.2 mph. It elevated the Twins’ win chance to 99.6%. Gallo capped his day, and matched a profession excessive, along with his fourth hit, a single within the high of the ninth.
“I don’t remember the last time I had four hits,” Gallo mentioned. “I don’t know if I had that in the big leagues before.”
Gallo had 4 hits in 5 at-bats with Texas on May 16, 2019, in Kansas City. He solely hit one residence run — a solo homer — in that sport.
Gallo, a two-time All-Star, signed a one-year take care of the Twins in December after spending 2022 with the Yankees and Dodgers. He now has extra residence runs than he had final season, the second straight season that he had been traded simply earlier than the Trade Deadline.
Gallo mentioned he appreciates the possibility to lastly get some consistency.
“It’s nice to be somewhere for a minute now,” Gallo mentioned. “The Deadline’s always scary because you just never know what’s going to happen. It was a relief that I was still here and able to finish what we started.”
Content Source: www.mlb.com