Matt Moore continued his terrific Spring Thursday afternoon, while the Tampa Bay Rays hit four homers in their 6-1 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Moore posted 4-2/3 innings of one run ball, collecting an impressive eight strikeouts on 70 pitches (52 strikes). The lefty worked around five hits including a Ryan Howard homer ― the only run against him. Citing his ability to work below the zone, Moore was able to collect whiffs out of the Phillies’ batters.
Just throwing the same pitches I normally throw. Sometimes they hit them sometimes they don’t. … My changeup and curveball, whenever I could get them below in the zone were pretty effective, I was doing a pretty good job of getting ahead in the count.
Moore told Kelly Parsons (Tampa Bay Times) he felt good about his outing, adding that his changeup and curveball have been progressing nicely. In 10-1/3 Spring innings, the southpaw has just given up just a pair of runs, and hasn’t walked a batter over three starts.
After Moore, Kyle McPherson, Parker Markel and Mark Sappington pitched 3-1/3 innings of scoreless baseball.
On the offensive side of things, Logan Forsythe, Steve Pearce, Richie Shaffer, and Mikie Mahtook pounded the Phillies to the tune of four home runs.
Forsythe led off the game with a solo shot to deep left-center against Vince Velazquez.
Forsythe left a home game against Philadelphia on Tuesday after being hit on the elbow by a pitch. Yet the infielder returned to action Thursday, saying it was important to not get out of rhythm in spite of some lingering soreness in his elbow.
The soreness was still there a little bit with the elbow, but no limitations, really. I could tell it didn’t really affect many of the swings, so I think we’re okay.
Pearce also made a triumphant return to the lineup.
The 1B/OF/DH last appeared in a game against Boston on March 7 before being shutdown due to calf tightness. In the sixth inning Pearce hit a towering home run into the left-field bullpen off Edward Mujica, breaking open the tie game.
I wanted to take advantage of these at-bats and try to get my swing right for the season, Pearce said about his homer.
Tampa Bay also got a pair of homers in the eighth from Shaffer and Mahtook ― each their first of the spring.
All told, this was the Rays first four-homer game in Pinellas County since March 18, 2015.
The New What Next
Dana Eveland will get the start Friday afternoon opposite of Roenis Elias and the Red Sox. Also scheduled to pitch are David Carpenter, Danny Farquhar, Alex Colome, Steve Geltz, Xavier Cedeno and Enny Romero. Erasmo Ramirez was originally penciled in to start against Boston, but he will be starting a minor-league game instead.
Rays 3/18/16 Starting Lineup
Souza RF
Miller SS
Pearce 3B
Morrison 1B
Beckham 2B
Conger C
Rivera DH
Mahtook CF
Motter LF
Eveland P
Noteworthiness
― Evan Longoria left Thursday’s game after one inning because of a contusion he sustained when he fouled a ball off his left shin during his first at-bat. Rays manager Kevin Cash said he was walking around fine afterward.
I think it just got pretty sore on him. He squared it up pretty good.
Cash told Longorida he could DH Friday if he felt up to it. So let’s assume that he didn’t his shin didn’t feel great.