Wow. What more can you say about what happened last night at Globe Life Park. Since I heard Monday afternoon that the Rangers would call up Joey Gallo I was looking forward to the game. I was excited to see what he would do, all the while anticipating that he would probably go 0-4, with 2 strikeouts. He lived up to his hype at least for one night and provided a glimpse at what type of player he could be for this Rangers team in the future. He did everything last night except for field a ball and steal a base. It was one of the best rookie debuts I have seen for a Rangers position player. Probably the best in my mind since Ruben Mateo went 1-4 in his debut with a home run back on June 12, 1999. That is probably how long it has been since they have had a player with as much hype as Joey Gallo is getting. The guy deserves it especially with the kind of numbers he was putting up in the minor leagues. He had put up two straight 40 home run seasons and was probably on his way to around 40 again this season, but they decided to promote him for 2-3 weeks. I am excited to see what Gallo can do for this team in the next few weeks and I hope that when Adrian Beltre is healthy that Gallo has played so well that they have to at least have a conversation about keeping him on the team even though there really is not a spot for him to get consistent at-bats. Man what a night though.
On a night that everyone is going to be talking about Joey Gallo, there were other things that happened. The team did win 15-2. Carlos Corporan had 5 rbi’s on the night after coming in for Robinson Chirinos in the 3rd inning. Colby Lewis pitched 7 great innings, only allowing a 2-run home run to Adam Eaton. Everyone on the team had multiple hits except for Prince Fielder. Fielder has seemingly cooled off after a scorched earth road trip. The team has now started to put some distance between themselves and .500 and 27-25. Unfortunately the Astros came back to win so the Rangers are still 5.5 games back of the Astros. They are only 0.5 game back of the Tigers and Angels for the second wild card spot though. They have now won 11 of their last 13 and are just making baseball look easy. That could change today as they go up against White Sox ace Chris Sale who will try to neutralize these lefty heavy Rangers lineup. Nick Martinez will try to keep the White Sox off the board and help give the offense a chance at winning this game. It is going to be weird especially after how Gallo played last night when manager Jeff Banister decides to sit him against Chris Sale in favor of Adam Rosales. Not saying it is the wrong move, but it is not going to be the popular move with fans who will be coming tonight to see Joey Gallo play. It is smart because he will have a better shot for success tomorrow against Carlos Rodon than against Chris Sale. Game time is tonight at 7:05. Go Rangers!!!!!!!!!!