MINNEAPOLIS -- Hitting leadoff seemed to agree with Joey Gallo on Saturday, so Minnesota Twins manager Rocco Badlelli penciled him atop the order for Sunday’s series finale against the Chicago Cubs at Target Field.
“He was begging for it after the game yesterday,” Baldelli said.
In his first career start batting leadoff, Gallo went 2 for 5 with a home run and four RBIs. That broke up a 3-for-32 skid over Gallo’s previous 12 games.
“I think the initial shock of seeing his name there snapped him into a really good place,” Baldelli said.
On Sunday against the Cubs, he was 1 for 4 through seven innings with a two-run home run that gave the Twins an 8-0 lead in the third inning. He left the game with an apparent leg injury after grounding out to short to end the seventh inning.
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Gallo’s three-run home run off Cubs starter Hayden Wesneski in the third Saturday was celebrated for “breaking” StatCast because MLB’s stat-gathering system didn’t have an immediate read on it. With no official reading, social media erupted into superlatives.
But on Sunday, it was reported the homer officially came down in the second deck in right-center field, 421 from home plate. It came on a 94.1 mph fastball and traveled at 110.6 mph off the bat. Impressive by any standard, but not even among the longest 54 home runs hit at Target Field since the park opened for the 2010 season.
Miguel Sano owns the record, his 496-foot homer off White Sox left-hander Ross Detwiler landing in the third deck in left-center on Sept. 17, 2019. According to Twins records, Minnesota’s erstwhile third baseman, in fact, hit four of the longest 25 home runs hit at Target Field — for a total of 1,891 feet.
Next is Jim Thome, a homer off Kansas City right-hander Felipe Paulino into the right field plaza on July 17, 2011, estimated at 490 feet.
And while Gallo might not have etched his name into Target Field’s HR ledger, but Chicago’s Christopher Morel did. His home run off Louie Varland to start the third inning Sunday traveled an estimated 460 feet into the third deck in left, which ties him with six others for 23rd on the list of longest homers.
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