Gray takes an unlikely path
Commissioner Rob Manfred stopped Nationals righthander Josiah Gray on the field before the All-Star Game and asked him to pose for a photo.
Gray, like Manfred, attended Le Moyne College, a small Division 2 school in Syracuse.
That Gray would one day chat up the commissioner before throwing a scoreless inning in the All-Star Game was not something anybody expected.
Gray played at New Rochelle High in New York, which had produced one major leaguer over the previous 124 years before he made his debut with the Dodgers in 2021.
“That keeps me going every day, being a smaller-school guy,” Gray said. “To accomplish what I have accomplished so far, it says a lot. I want to provide motivation to the next guy in my position, that you can get here if you work hard and create your own opportunities.”
Gray was drafted by the Reds in 2018 and traded to the Dodgers later that year. He was then one of the four prospects sent to the Nationals for Trea Turner and Max Scherzer in 2021.
The 25-year-old Gray has a 3.59 ERA over 19 starts. Washington sees him as one of the pillars of their rebuilding process.
It’s not easy for players from Metropolitan New York to make it to the majors given the weather and a greater focus on basketball and football.
“It’s not a hotbed for baseball,” Gray said. “There’s a lot of kinship among players like myself, Harrison Bader, George Kirby, and Henry Davis. We take pride in that.”
Extra bases
When the Red Sox released Ryan Brasier back in May, he said his hope was that another team would spot something they could fix and give him a chance to get back to the big leagues. That team was the Dodgers. Brasier allowed two earned runs on five hits over his first 12 games and 13 innings with Los Angeles. The Dodgers told Brasier to lean on his cutter, instead of throwing his fastball and slider 95 percent of the time as he did with the Sox. To be sure, Brasier has benefited from an unsustainably low .156 batting average on balls in play. But good fortune is often the residue of hard work and Brasier, who will turn 36 in late August, has shown he’s still a reliable reliever for a contending team . . . There are plenty of bad contracts out there. But Anthony Rendon’s seven-year, $245 million deal with the Angels is particularly brutal. Rendon has played only 200 of a possible 483 games over four seasons while hitting .249 with a .758 OPS. Rendon was suspended in April after a run-in with a fan and last week he responded to a question about his status by saying, “I’m not here.” Rendon has been out since July 4 with a bruised shin. “I get the perception that [some think] Anthony doesn’t care,” manager Phil Nevin said. “I promise you he does. His attitude has not changed since spring training. In all the discussions we’ve had, he’s frustrated by it. A little confused by it. I’m not going to say it’s frustrating for us. Of course, I’d love to have him.” . . . The Reds have 117 stolen bases after stealing 58 last season, and are among the league leaders in the percentage of extra bases taken. But being aggressive also has a downside. Cincinnati also is among the league leaders running into outs at the plate and third base . . . When the Yankees fell into last place last week, the other last-place teams were the Athletics, Nationals, Rockies, Royals, and Pirates. The Yankees haven’t finished in last since 1990 and haven’t had a losing season since ’92. It’s hard to imagine the Yankees as sellers, but that has to be a consideration . . . During an appearance on the “Foul Territory” podcast, Mookie Betts reiterated that he never wanted to leave the Red Sox. “I know people don’t believe it, but I wanted to stay in Boston my whole career. That was my life, everybody there. It was perfect,” he said . . . The Rays don’t have much history, but they are trying to celebrate it. The team announced plans to put two statues up outside Tropicana Field. One will be of Akinori Iwamura stepping on second base for the final out of the 2008 ALCS. The other will be of Evan Longoria hitting his famed walkoff homer in Game 162 of the 2011 season. The statues will be unveiled Sept. 23 . . . Boston College’s Emmet Sheehan has given the Dodgers a boost since being called up from Double A, going 3-0 with a 4.91 ERA over five starts. The 23-year-old rookie has thrown 79 innings this season, counting the minors. Sheehan has never thrown more than 92‚ innings over a single season, that coming in 2021 when he made 13 starts for the Eagles and seven appearances in the minors . . . Shohei Ohtani went into the weekend leading the majors in home runs and triples. The last player who led the majors in those categories this late in the season was Jim Rice in 1978. Rice led the majors with 46 homers and 15 triples that season. Since 1900, the only other player to do that was Willie Mays in 1955. He had 51 homers and 13 triples that season . . . If you haven’t yet discovered the online game Immaculate Grid, go to baseball-reference.com to play. It’s a good test of your baseball knowledge . . . Happy birthday to Nomar Garciaparra, who is 50. Garciaparra hit .323 with a .923 OPS for the Sox from 1996-2004 and was a five-time All-Star. Injuries and disgruntlement with the team’s failed bid to replace him with Alex Rodriguez led to Garciaparra being traded to the Cubs in 2004. The Sox went on to win the World Series. Garciaparra, who also played for the Dodgers and Athletics, retired before the 2010 season after signing a one-day contract with the Sox. The team had a day in his honor later that season, but Garciaparra has since spent more time around the Dodgers in recent years because of his work as a broadcaster.