Aaron Boone, Joey Gallo hope clutch home run can help him get on a roll

Joey Gallo has seen something shocking since coming from Texas to New York.

"Traffic is wow," he said. "I underestimated it, I think, a little bit."

Dealing with the gridlock hasn’t been his only problem. The Yankees have been waiting for his bat to fully come on board for this playoff push since acquiring him from the Rangers on July 29, but he has been struggling in that regard.

Perhaps Saturday will help get him headed in the right direction. Aaron Boone sure hopes so.

Baltimore scored a run in the ninth to pull out a 4-3 win at Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon, but Gallo snapped a 0-for-17 slide by slugging a tying two-run homer in the eighth.

"I thought a little bit [Friday] night, it was the first time for an at-bat or two where he was wanting it a little too bad," Boone said. "That takes him out of his game because his game is patience and getting himself in a strong hitting position.

"To have a huge hit obviously for us at the time today, I’m happy about that, and hopefully it’s something that settles him and gets him rolling."

Entering the eighth inning, Gallo had four hits in his last 55 at-bats (26 strikeouts) and was 15-for-115 (.130) with 55 strikeouts as a Yankee.

"I worked today with the hitting guys here and just looked at video from back when I was in Texas and going well, kind of bouncing ideas off of each other," Gallo said. "I think for me, I’ve always been kind of streaky."

Gallo has hit six of his 31 homers for the Yankees. He has six doubles, 26 walks and 13 RBIs in 33 games since the trade.

"I think obviously coming over in a trade, and especially to a market like New York, you want to perform and you want to play well right out of the gate," Gallo said. "I haven’t necessarily done that especially really well.

"I think for me it’s more of a learning opportunity, like, what is it like to struggle here? I know it’s different from when I was in Texas. There’s a lot more eyes, a lot more media coverage. That’s OK. So I think it’s a good test for me. It’s a good challenge."