ARLINGTON -- Rangers slugger Joey Gallo came into Wednesday's 7-5 loss to the Blue Jays tied for 13th in the Majors in home runs with 18 and added another in the fifth inning, although it was a bit unusual.
Gallo's towering fly ball to left careened off the wall in the corner, skipping back toward the infield and away from Blue Jays left fielder Steve Pearce, who crashed into the wall trying to snag it and then tried to limp after it. Gallo strode home easily without a throw for an inside-the-park homer, his 19th dinger of the year.
"I knew it had a little bite on it, so I thought maybe that might get out," Gallo said. "As soon as I saw it hit the wall and he went down, I was like, 'OK, I have a chance to score here.' I told [Rangers third-base coach Tony] Beasley, I said, 'I wasn't even looking at you, I was going no matter what,' so it didn't really matter. But it was pretty exciting."
"I lost the ball," Pearce said, "so I was kind of just drifting and hopefully I'd pick it up sooner, but I didn't, and when I jumped into the wall, I hit it pretty hard."
Gallo made it home in 15.91 seconds, according to Statcast™, the fifth-fastest time on a homer this year and 16th-fastest since Statcast™ began in 2015. Minnesota's James Dozier has the quickest time (15.41) on an inside-the-parker this season.
With a 97.6 mph exit velocity and 42-degree launch angle, the ball had a hit probability of only 7 percent -- the lowest on a Rangers homer this season.
"Inside-the-park home run, it's always fun to watch a big man like that run around the bases," Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. "I think somewhere in between first and second, he turned on the speed. It's fun to watch, and it's fun to watch when this guy is swinging the bat well."
It was the 26th inside-the-park home run in Rangers history and the first since Ryan Rua against the Yankees on July 30, 2015. He joined Rua, Luis Alicea and Craig Gentry as the only Rangers to do it at Globe Life Park.
The 15.91 seconds is the fastest home-to-home time on a homer by a Rangers player since Statcast™ was introduced for the 2015 season. It's their second-fastest home to home on any play, as Delino DeShields posted a 15.08 scoring on a single and three-base error in '15.