Joey Gallo doesn’t need any help hitting home runs. The Texas Rangers slugged 152 round-trippers in five minor-league seasons, and he already has 26 in 120 major league games, including 19 this year.
No. 19 never left the yard, though.
Gallo lofted a fly to left field in the fifth inning of Wednesday night’s game in Texas, and Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Steve Pearce crashed into the wall while in pursuit, missing the ball. It bounded so far away that Jays shortstop Troy Tulowitzki had to retrieve it, but Gallo was off to the races, crossing home plate standing up for a Little League-style, inside-the-park home run.
“I knew it had a little bite on it, so I thought maybe that might get out,” Gallo said after the game, via MLB.com. “As soon as I saw it hit the wall and he (Pearce) went down, I was like, ‘OK, I have a chance to score here.’
“I told (Rangers third-base coach Tony) Beasley, I said, ‘I wasn’t even looking at you, I was going no matter what,’ so it didn’t really matter. But it was pretty exciting.”
It wasn’t nearly as exciting for Pearce, who bruised his right knee in the collision and had to leave the game — which his Jays won, 7-5 — in the next inning.
“I couldn’t see it,” Pearce said of Gallo’s fly ball, via MLB.com. “When it went up, I looked back to find the wall, and then I looked to find the ball again. I had no idea where it was. I had to rush back there and try to time the catch, and I hit right in between two pads, something pretty hard.”
Gallo has been mentioned as a possible MLB All-Star Game Home Run Derby contestant, but he’s not sure he’ll participate. No inside-the-park homers allowed there, Joey.
Thumbnail photo via Tim Heitman/USA TODAY Sports Images
