When the Dodgers traded away 23-year-old top pitching prospect Clayton Beeter to the AL East first-place New York Yankees for 28-year-old two-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove outfielder Joey Gallo on August 2, it was met with mixed emotions among Dodgers fans. After all, the Henderson, NV native and first-round draft pick in 2012 by the Texas Rangers out of Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas was slashing a paltry .159 / .282 / .339 / .621 with 12 home runs and 24 RBI with the Yankees; this from a guy they were paying $10,275,000 to. It was also a well known fact Gallo was anything but a fan-favorite amongst often very harsh Yankees fans.

Things didn’t get much better for the 6′-5″/250-pound outfielder when, through his first five games as a Dodger, he went 3-for-14 (.214), with his first extra base hit – a double – coming on Tuesday night, August 9 against the Minnesota Twins at Dodger Stadium.

But with one pinch-hit swing of the bat on Wednesday night in front of a sold out Dodger Stadium crowd of 53,432, the largest crowd to witness a game in the MLB this season, Gallo became an immediate Dodgers fan-favorite when he crushed a 399-foot opposite field three-run home run to give his new team an 8-4 lead in the eventual 10-6 Dodgers win over the (now) AL Central second-place Twins.

“Since the first day I got here there’s been immediate results in the process and getting back to the player I know I can be, so it’s been great the last week,” Gallo told reporters after the game. “Everybody’s smiling (in the Dodgers clubhouse). Just gotta keep working.”

But Gallo’s home run wasn’t the only (very) loud moment at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday night.

With one out in the top of the seventh inning, Dodgers right-hander Evan Phillips struck out Twins shortstop and former Houston Astros cheater Carlos Correa, which sent MLB’s largest crowd of the season into a frenzy.

Truer words have never been spoken.

Wednesday night’s win by the Dodgers completed their third consecutive series sweep to extend their current winning streak to 10 games, their longest since 2017 and one behind their franchise record 11-game winning streak set in 1945.

Play Ball!

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