Breaking Down Matt Moore’s Return to the Mound

14 months after going under the knife, Tampa Bay Rays’ LHP Matt Moore made his return to the mound Thursday against Cleveland. Moore put together an outing flush with a successful beginning and rough ending, resulting in a 4.2 IP/6 H/4 ER/2 BB/4 K on slash line on 81 pitches (53 strikes).

Moore started out strong, throwing an efficient 10-pitch (nine strikes) 1-2-3 first inning while fanning one (Michael Brantley, swinging). And though he began with three hitless innings, Moore stumbled in the fourth after Jason Kipnis blooped a single into shallow left-field that dropped in between Asdrubal Cabrera, Joey Butler, and Kevin Kiermaier as they converged. Moore then tossed two wild pitches in the inning, and gave up a run on a Michael Brantley sacrifice-fly.

Moore came undone in the fifth with Cleveland’s two-out rally. Giovanny Urshela singled, and Moore walked Mike Aviles. Three consecutive singles and a wild pitch later, Cleveland took a 4-2 lead and Moore was pulled in favor of Steve Geltz.

Stuff-wise, Moore’s repertoire featured a fastball (54 thrown, 40 strikes, 7 whiffs) that hovered around 90 mph and touched 94 — about two mph slower than his 2013 season — an 84 mph change-up (16 thrown, 1 whiff), and an 80 mph curveball (11 thrown, 6 strikes, 2 whiffs). Lumped in with those fastballs were 21 cutters — which he threw more than any other pitch, 14 two-seamers, and 19 four-seamers.

Ian Malinowski (DRaysBay) created a movement and velocity chart of Moore’s stuff, which you can see below.

All told, Moore put together an outing that most would expect, after he sat out the better part of a season and a half — an outing that was a rusty in spots, yet featuring moments of potential.

The lefty spoke about that very subject after the game, saying,

I have to be better than four singles and a walk. I’ve got to be able to get out of that inning. Any time we can put up two like that, especially against a guy like Corey Kluber, you can’t squander that. It was a tough, in-game type of adjustment, but I’ve got to be better than that right there in that moment.

At the end of the day, I wanted to be able to look at myself and know that I went out there and competed and didn’t leave anything out there on the table. I feel like that’s what me and Rene did for our first time throwing together.

It will be particularly interesting to see how he progresses as his arm gains strength, and he pitches himself back into shape. For now, let’s be thankful that the All-Star left-hander is back, and hope for more of the Moore we saw in innings one through three this afternoon.

Noteworthiness

— The team optioned Preston Guilmet back to Triple-A Durham after the game, and reinstated 1B James Loney from the disabled list.