ARLINGTON -- Rangers third baseman Joey Gallo crushed his first home run of the season on Tuesday, and it was a jaw-dropper, landing a dozen rows up in the second deck beyond right field in the second inning.
Statcast™ estimated it at 443 feet, with a launch angle of 37 degrees.
"Any time you see a towering shot like that, it's pretty impressive," manager Jeff Banister said. "It's exciting to watch."
Seven innings later, Mike Napoli just missed his first home run of the season. It wouldn't have been as impressive as Gallo's, but it would have been far more dramatic. Napoli just didn't get it quite far enough.
With the Rangers trailing by two runs in the ninth, Napoli had to settle for a run-scoring double. The Rangers still had three chances to tie it, but Indians reliever Cody Allen struck out Rougned Odor, Jurickson Profar and Gallo to send the Rangers to a 4-3 loss at Globe Life Park.
"We were trying to get something going; it just didn't end the way we wanted," Nomar Mazara said.
It was Mazara's leadoff double against Allen that started the rally. Napoli then launched his drive to deep left-center; the ball hit off the lower half of the wall beyond the reach of center fielder Austin Jackson. Napoli had to settle for a double and then left the game for pinch-runner Delino DeShields.
"No, I didn't think it was out," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "Maybe I was hoping. I actually thought Austin tracked it pretty well. He just kind of ran out of room."
DeShields was stranded at second base. Odor fell behind, 0-2, fouled off three two-strike pitches and then missed cutting on a 2-2 fastball.
"Especially with Odor coming up, as well as he's swinging the bat, as well as he's seeing the ball, you just want to make some good pitches," Allen said. "That's the only thing you can really do right there. You can't kind of put the cart before the horse. You can't try to strike him out on the first pitch."
Profar, pinch-hitting for Ryan Rua, went down looking on a 2-2 curve. That brought up Gallo, who was 2-for-3 with a single to go with the home run. He also went 2-2 on Allen but couldn't catch up to a 93-mph fastball.
"Any time Joey swings the bat, he's dangerous," Banister said. "Joey put up some very competitive at-bats the first two nights, and I felt that last at-bat was a competitive at-bat."
Gallo supplied the Rangers with their first runs with a two-run shot in the second inning, but another rally fizzled in the third, when Mazara got too aggressive on the basepaths.
After Shin-Soo Choo singled with one out off Indians starter Carlos Carrasco, Mazara lined one down the right-field line. Choo raced to third, but Mazara was cut down by right-fielder Brandon Guyer trying for a double.

"When I touched first, he bobbled the ball a little bit," Mazara said. "That's why I kept going, but he made a good throw."
Carrasco hit Napoli with a pitch but struck out Odor. The Rangers did not mount another threat until the ninth.