Tampa mopped the floor with the Rangers 9-0 in front of 50,498 at The Ballpark at Arlington Friday afternoon. C.J. Wilson was surprisingly ineffective against a Tampa offense, which on the day was led by Kelly Shoppach’s three-hit attack with two homers and 5 RBIs.
But perhaps even more shocking, was the day Tampa’s 22-year-old lefty Matt Moore had. He went seven scoreless innings, surrendering only two hits and two walks while striking out six.
Moore, who was making only his second career start in the show was brilliant. The only two hits he gave up were both courtesy of Josh Hamilton. One of those hits, a double over Matt Joyce’s head was actually a pretty decent looking a pitch – a curveball at the bottom of the strike zone.
Tampa’s secret weapon Matt Moore revealed in his first start in New York, that for one, he has incredible stuff. And two, he has tremendous composure. Although I guess I’ll say, most people on the mound would probably seem confident if they had Moore’s Arsenal.
A three-pitch guy, Moore’s fastball was touching 98 mph yesterday, and the Rangers never seemed that comfortable in the box. In yesterday’s game, Moore was working the top of the zone with the heater frequently, and the Texas lineup had a real hard time getting on top of it. The consistency of the location was out of this World. If Matt would miss high, it would be by a matter of centimeters.
With Ranger batters staying alert for the fastball, Moore mixed in his two secondary pitches, the change-up and the curve ball masterfully. Again, location wise – these offerings were repeatedly pelting the bottom edge of the strike-zone. It was almost freaky how good his control was.
The Rays went down 1-2-3 in the first. Moore threw nine pitches to the lead-off man Ian Kinsler before finally getting him to pop up. He then struck out Elvis Andrus with a nasty change-up on a full count. Josh Hamilton singled but Michael Young followed that up with a fly-out to center field.
But then the Rays dropped a three-spot on the board in the second, to which Moore responded with a quick and easy inning. Then Tampa scored three more in the third. When Moore struck out Craig Gentry in the bottom half of that frame, you could hear a collective sigh from the ballpark. The Ranger fans sensed it – Matt Moore was settled in, totally in the zone, and in complete control.
The announcers were busy making excuses for the Ranger’s batters during the broadcast, saying two things mostly: The shadows creeping in front of the mound and before home plate were hurting Texas’ vision. I’d argue Tampa wasn’t having much trouble – they scored nine runs.
They were also saying it hurt Texas that they had never seen Moore pitch in person. But yesterday with the stuff Moore had, familiarity wasn’t going to help Texas much. When a left-handed pitcher can touch 98 with his fastball, and have full command over his two other plus pitches, he’s going to find success.
I’m not going to speculate on whether or not Joe Maddon has planned on the possibility of using Matt Moore in a potential ALCS game. But if I had to guess, if the Rays get to that point, he’s going to run him back out on the mound.
As I documented last Friday after Moore’s first start, this kid has something special. I have a feeling he will be considered one of the top five left-handed starters in baseball at some point next year.