The new kids on 161st Street in the Bronx aren’t really kids. Anthony Rizzo turns 32 on Sunday. Joey Gallo is 27. They were both traded and came to New York City to make a difference. So far, it has worked out well. Maybe you can recall two acquisitions that made a quicker impact with the Yankees than they did, but I can’t.
Gallo hit his first home run as a Yankee at his new stadium Thursday night, with an impressive 48-degree exit angle. One of Gallo’s former teammates told him the ball – which landed in a right-field seat 335 feet from home plate – would have been an out if he were with the Rangers.
But Joey Gallo is no longer in Texas. His home now is Yankee Stadium and he has hit the longest home run by any Yankee this season, one that you would think went toward the moon, causing Gallo’s neck to tilt upward as he begins his run to first base. He came to the plate with two on and two outs in the bottom of the seventh, with the Yankees trailing 3-2 against the Mariners. When the ball fell, the board favored New York 5-3.
The Bombers entered Saturday 6-1 since Gallo and Rizzo arrived in the Big Apple.
And once and for all, after lacking a left-handed threat all season, they now have Gallo and Rizzo; two good names for New York. The Yankees seem like a different team. It’s a different season all of a sudden and it’s just the first week of August.
They don’t have Gerrit Cole now, because he tested positive for COVID-19. The same with Dominican catcher Gary Sánchez. But they have the “new kids on the block” in the Bronx. The Yankees began Friday night against the Mariners just 5.5 games behind the leading Rays, four games behind the Red Sox (three in the loss column) and one over the Blue Jays, who have thundered even more than the Bombers since the deadline for changes.
Rizzo and Gallo were integrated when the team was facing the Marlins last weekend in Miami. Rizzo homered in his first game and the Yankees won. Then he hit another in the second and his team won again. Before you know it, Rizzo has produced runs in his first six games with New York, something no Yankees have ever accomplished before. Even more than Gallo, Rizzo has immediately changed the look of the lineup. It seems to be heading to change the whole attitude of the team.
The Yankees weren’t much fun to watch in the first four months of the season, but they have a chance to be a worthy show in the last two. The Blue Jays are very close to them, with the same number of losses as New York. The Red Sox are struggling and could see themselves in fourth place as early as next week, after spending a good time at the top. The Rays? They are not going anywhere.
“I think it’s the weight of our lineup that pays dividends,” Aaron Boone said the other day. “If you look at the order now, there is a lot of balance. I really feel like our best offensive days are ahead with this group. “
This is what Gallo said after his swing gave his team the victory in the first game of the series against the Mariners.
“You could feel that it would be an important turn. I’m happy that I was able to respond and help the team win, because I feel like there were a couple of chances in the week where I could have done something similar and I couldn’t. Obviously it feels great. “
His first home run at Yankee Stadium was a matter of time. It only took a week. Look at the fruits that the Yankees have reaped in these first days. Suddenly there is a party on 161st Street in the Bronx.
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