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A former baseball star from the Hudson Valley gained praise in his MLB debut, striking out seven as he helped the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers to an important win over the San Francisco Giants as they chase them in the National League West.
Westchester County native Josiah Gray, from New Rochelle, pitched four innings on Tuesday, July 20 after coming into the game in the third inning following a two-inning opening stint by reliever Darien Nuñez.
Prior to his call-up, Gray was ranked as the second-highest prospect in the Dodgers organization and the 42nd-ranked prospect in Major League Baseball.
In his four innings, the 23-year-old Gray struck out seven batters, but walked one and allowed four earned runs as he left with his team trailing 6-2 in the sixth inning, though the Dodgers came back to win 8-6 to narrow their deficit in the NL West to one game in what some team officials called their "biggest win of the year."
Gray allowed three home runs in his four innings, but flashed some of his ability that made him such a highly-regarded prospect, hitting 97 mph on the radar gun and recording multiple swings-and-misses in his outing.
“He’s got an elite fastball,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of Gray to the Athletic. “But tonight the slider versus right, versus left, the breaking ball, which is kind of like a slurve, he located that really well. He got a lot of swing and miss.
“Lot of good things tonight. I know that the linescore probably wasn’t what he had hoped for, but a lot of good stuff.”
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