Hits two of Bombers’ 5 HRs in Cleveland rout
The Yankees have seen Joey Gallo when he goes through the cold spells that are normal in his season. Maybe now they are seeing the start of one of his hot streaks. The slugger, who the Bombers acquired from the Rangers at the trade deadline, hammered two home runs as the Yankees hit a season-high tying five and shutout Cleveland 8-0 at Yankee Stadium.
“It’s always nice to kind of win a game handily,” Gallo said. “We’ve been playing really, really close games as of late. So it’s nice to kind of let our pitchers go out there and not have to worry about giving up a run and obviously it is a more loose environment. As an offense we have the lineup that can do that, so we have to do that more.”
It was the fourth win in the last five games for the Yankees (83-65) and they have very little breathing room as they chase one of the two American League Wild Card spots. With their win and the Blue Jays’ loss, the Yankees moved back into the second Wild Card spot, a half-game behind the Red Sox, who beat up on the Orioles.
“I like our chances,” said veteran outfielder Brett Gardner, whose three-run shot broke open Friday’s game. “We’ve got an opportunity to make the postseason if we play well these next couple weeks. If we do what we’re capable of doing we’ll be where we want to be.”
It was a solid bounce back for the Yankees, who suffered a devastating loss to the Orioles on Thursday night. The Yankees are in a stretch of three straight series, nine games, against sub-.500 teams, including Cleveland (71-74) that they have to take advantage of before finishing the season against the Red Sox, Blue Jays and AL East leading Rays.
Gallo homered in the bottom of the second, and again in the eighth inning. It was his 14th career multihome run game and his sixth of the season. He has homered in the last four straight games in which he had an at-bat. He has 37 home runs on the year and 12 as a Yankee.
Aaron Judge hit his 35th homer of the season, a solo shot into the rightfield bullpen in the fourth. Gardner then hit his ninth of the season, a three-run shot, in the seventh.
Giancarlo Stanton hit his 29th of the season in the eighth as well.
That gave Corey Kluber his first win since May 19, when he threw a no-hitter against the Rangers in Texas. He threw six scoreless innings Friday against his former team. He scattered four hits, walked two and struck out four.
It was Kluber’s best outing since he came off the injured list. The 35year old missed nearly three months with a muscle strain in the rotator cuff of his right shoulder. In his first three starts off the IL, Kluber had not gone more than four innings.
“He looked like he did when he threw a no-hitter against us in Texas,” Gallo, the former Ranger, said with a laugh. “Not knowing what he’s gonna throw in any count, the balls moving off the plate every which way.”
That was an encouraging sign for the Yankees as they try to piece together their pitching down the stretch. Also encouraging is seeing Gallo get comfortable.
Over the last week, Gallo has started to really heat up. In seven games (five starts) Gallo had hit .278/.300/.944 for a 1.244 OPS with four home runs, five RBI, and seven strikeouts. In that span, Gallo’s batting stance has quieted down a bit, according to one talent evaluator in the ballpark Friday night.
Since coming over on July 31, Gallo has mostly struggled. Going into Friday’s game, he was slashing .151/.302/.397 with a .699 OPS. He had 71 strikeouts and 32 walks with 70 strikeouts in 146 at-bats with the Yankees.
“Watching a video from a few weeks ago, I was more kind of flailing a little bit,” Gallo said of working with hitting coaches Marcus Thames and PJ Pilittere. “I didn’t have much strength, I wasn’t (using) my legs as much.”