July 13th, 2019 at 9:31 am 
by Ron Cervenka While the entire baseball world is still in utter amazement (and utter disbelief) at what happened in front of a (near) Angel Stadium sellout crowd of 43,140 on Friday night with the combined no-hitter thrown by 29-year-old Angels right-handers Taylor Cole and Felix Peña in loving memory and honor of 27-year-old left-hander Tyler Skaggs who died suddenly on July 1, there was a near no-hitter being tossed a mere 40 miles away at LoanMart Field in Rancho Cucamonga, home of the Dodgers Advanced Single-A affiliate Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.
In front of a modest LoanMart Field crowd of 2,518, 21-year-old Quakes right-hander Josiah Gray held the San Jose Giants (Giants) scoreless – and hitless – through six innings and finished his 12th start of the season at the High-A level. with his seventh win of the season against no losses.
The 6′-1″ New Rochelle, NY native, who is listed at 190 pounds but is every bit of 210, was acquired by the Dodgers along with 20-year-old infielder Jeter Downs in the Yasiel Puig, Matt Kemp, Kyle Farmer and Alex Wood trade with the Cincinnati Reds on December 21, 2018. He allowed only a seventh-inning leadoff single to Giants center fielder Logan Baldwin, while walking one and striking out seven to earn the win, while lowering his ERA to a team-best 2.14 among all Quakes starters.
The Quakes, on the other hand, provided Gray – and left-hander Wes Helsabeck and right-hander Max Gamboa – four runs of support on five hits.
Among those five hits was a second-inning double by Quakes left-fielder Niko Hulsizer, who took third on a 6-4-3 double play. Downs then drew a two-out / four-pitch walk. Quakes manager Mark Kertenian then put on a delayed double-steal, during which Downs was able to get into a rundown allowing Hulsizer to score. Downs managed to return safely to first base when Giants second baseman Brandon Van Horn inexplicably (and literally) dropped the ball.
Although Friday night’s near no-hitter in Rancho Cucamonga pales in comparison in every aspect to what was happening over in nearby Anaheim, the Quakes have now won 11 of their last 12 games and now have a 1.0-game lead over the Lancaster JetHawks (Rockies) in the Cal League South second-half standings; this after having won the first half, thereby guaranteeing Kertenian’s squad a postseason berth.
Play Ball!
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After last night’s incredible outing, it’s definitely time for Gray to finish out his breakout season in AA Tulsa along with fellow Quakes teammate Leo Crawford. Doesn’t help those two to stay down in High-A ball at this point when they’ve already mastered that level fully. Same goes for Devin Mann and Donovan Casey as well. All they’re doing is blocking a few Low-A Great Lakes players that should’ve been promoted to Rancho by now (Hunter Feduccia, Jacob Amaya, John Rooney, and Jose Chacin for instance).
I really enjoy reading about Josiah Gray and Jeter Downs. I hope they keep up the good work.