It’s easy to imagine the weight that was lifted off the shoulders of Joey Gallo as he rounded the bases after hitting his first home run of the season on Tuesday night.
Gallo, who has been stuck in a brutal slump since coming to New York last summer, finally got a hold of one and drove a solo shot out to left center to get in on the Bombers’ 12-run barrage, and improve on the sub-.500 OPS he held coming into the game.
“Lot of hard work paying off,” Gallo said of his first long ball of 2022. “Obviously I wish I had a better start to the season, but it’s a long season and I know the teammates have my back.”
They didn’t have his back when he returned to the dugout following his home run, and the team jokingly gave Gallo the silent treatment before celebrating with the slumping lefty slugger.
“I haven’t gotten that since my first home run in the big leagues, literally,” Gallo said. “I didn’t expect them to do that, but I was laughing. I thought it was really funny.
“They were poking fun at me a little bit in the dugout, so that was fun. I was glad to get that first one out of the way and hopefully keep going from there.”
The Yankees certainly hope Tuesday’s home run wakes up Gallo, who has been dropped down to seventh in the batting order as he continues to find his way out of one of the worst slumps of his career.
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