Jimmy Kingsbury
Modesto’s Jimmy Kingsbury and Kelvin Nunez combined to throw a no-hitter in the Nuts 7-0 win over Stockton on Friday night, the first no hitter in the Cal League since 2019. Kingsbury went the first seven innings and walked one batter while striking out 10. Nunez handled the 8th and 9th with no walks and three strikeouts. This was the third no-no in Modesto Nuts history, the last one coming in 2013.
Corey Rosier hit his third homer of the season and Trent Tinglestad had four hits to lead the Modesto offense. Rosier is now slashing .417/.489/.620 in 29 games for the Nuts.
Kingsbury was perfect in five of his seven innings. Junior Perez stuck out with one out in the third but reached first when the third strike got away from C Eric Jones. Perez stole second and when Jack Winkler reached on an error, Kingsbury was faced with a two-out, first-and-third jam. The righty out of Villanova induced a groundout to end the inning.
Kevin Richards drew a one-out walk in the fifth and was replaced on base when Perez followed with a FC grounder. Perez stole second again, but Kingsbury got another groundout to end the threat. He yielded to Nunez after seven innings having thrown 87 pitches, 64 for strikes.
Kelvin Nunez
Nunez went six up/six down over the final two innings on 18 pitches, 15 of them strikes. Together, Kingsbury and Nunez walked one and struck out 13. With business being handled quickly most of the night, the time of the game was 2:06.
Tinglestad led Modesto’s 14-hit attack with 4, while Rosier, Spencer Packard and Cesar Izturis Jr. had two hits apiece.
BLISS CYCLES in visalia’s 7-3 win
Visalia SS Ryan Bliss hit for the cycle, including his 6th homer of the season, in Visalia’s 7-3 win over Rancho Cucamonga. Avery Short (W, 2-5) gave up two runs over five innings and John Carver earned his first save as he allowed one run over four innings of relief.
Bliss homered in the first, doubled in the third, tripled in the sixth and then got a single in the ninth to complete his rare feat. He had a 10-game win streak snapped on Thursday night but got back into the hit column in a big way on Friday.
Deyvison De Los Santos hit his third homer of the year for Visalia and Shane Muntz blasted his second.
Yeiner Fernandez belted his first homer of the year for the Quakes.
SAN JOSE – 6
FRESNO – 5
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The top two teams in the league continued to size each other up for next week’s championship series and the Giants have had the better of it so far. Luis Matos and Jimmy Glowenke each had two hits as San Jose won for the third time in four games in this season-ending series. Pitcher of the Week/Month honoree Randy Rodriguez (W, 6-3) went 3 1/3 innings and allowed one hit with no runs or walks while striking out six.
INLAND EMPIRE – 1
LAKE ELSINORE – 0
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Jack Kochanowicz and Nick Mondak combined for the Cal League pitching effort of the night any other time, but their 1-0 shutout of Lake Elsinore happened to fall on a night when there was a no-hitter elsewhere. Jose Reyes doubled in a run in the fourth inning for the 66ers and that was it for both sides. Kochanowicz gave up three hits and didn’t walk anybody while striking out five over four innings. Mondak (W, 2-0) gave up one hit and no walks while striking out five. This game did edge out the Modesto no-hitter with a time of 2:03.
The Modesto Nuts woke up in a big way with an 8-run seventh inning that sent them to a 10-3 win at Stockton on Wednesday night. The Ports were up 3-0 and seemingly in control until a three-run homer by Ben Ramirez knotted up the game with one out. After that, the floodgates opened.
