Sure, the outcome of last night’s 3-0 shutout of the Red Sox is great. Better yet, the Rays now sit a half game out of first place and that’s a beautiful thing. But I’d argue the narrative coming out of Fenway has more to do with how the Rays defeated a team notorious for walk-offs. Matt Moore tossed a shutout for the first complete game of his major league career, surgically slicing and dicing the Sox while allowing total of three batters to reach base. Simply put, Moore was insanely good.
Moore went primal, attacking the Red Sox with his fastball which he was able to command on both sides of the plate, and up and down (mostly down) in the zone. Moore was able to control everything last night, not just his pitches.
“I really felt like he was in command of everything about himself in that game — his emotions, his breathing, his delivery, his command of his fastball,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “Everything he did (Monday), he commanded it. It was the one-moment-at-a-time thing, and that’s why he was so effective.”
Not shying away from contact, Moore was able to induce weakly hit ground outs and pop outs, while the Sox were only able to make solid contact twice — a Mike Napoli single to center in the second, and a David Ortiz base hit to right in the seventh. Mike Napoli also reached base in the fifth inning on a full count walk, though Jonny Gomes immediately ground into a double play, deleting the Sox first baseman and erasing the threat. Moore didn’t throw his deadly curveball, though that had more to do with the fact that he didn’t need to. Ian Malinowski of DRaysBay pointed out,
“Moore’s change-up produced four whiffs out of 22 pitches (18%), which is good, but that far undersells its effectiveness. Of the four strikeouts he got, three were decided by a changeup and the Sox hitters almost never managed to put a good swing on the other change-ups he threw.”
Incidentally, Moore felt as though he had a poor bullpen session before the game. In fact, his session was so bad he had to reassure Jose Lobaton when walking back to the dugout following the ill fated session. “I told Loby,” said Moore “We’re going to be okay, I’ll figure it out.”
In the end, it took Moore only 109 pitches (74 for strikes) to secure the shutout and complete game. Only hitting the 14 pitch per inning plateau once in the game (3.76 pitches per plate appearance), Moore put together a mighty efficient outing. It will be interesting to see if Hernandez can follow things up with his fifth consecutive quality start, and his sixth in eight attempts.
Workman appeared very hittable in a 33 pitch first inning, though he ultimately settled down to put together a solid six inning outing.
Desmond Jennings lead off the game with a single, flipping an outside pitch into right field. He, unfortunately, was caught leaning and was consequently picked off. Ben Zobrist followed, hitting a grounder up the middle, while Evan Longoria hit a hard liner to the left-center gap to put runners at the corners with one out. James Loney plated the first run of the game on a sac-fly to right, with Zobrist tagging and scoring easily ahead of Shane Victorino’s throw to the plate. The Rays wouldn’t be able to tack on any other runs until the fifth and ninth innings.
Yunel Escobar lead off the fifth with a walk. Desmond Jennings followed the walk with a beautiful bunt down the first base line, moving Escobar to second. Zobrist moved Yunel to third on a ground ball into the hole between short and third, beating out Jose Iglesias’ throw to first by a half a footstep, putting runners on the corners. Loney was able to bring home Escobar two batters later on a hard hit single past first base. The Rays tacked on one more run in the ninth inning when, Jennings hit a fly ball to shallow right center field with the bases loaded. Matt Joyce scored easily from third, ahead of Jacoby Ellsbury’s late and offline throw.
The New What Next
Tampa Bay will attempt to gain sole possession of first place tonight with Roberto Hernandez on the mound. Robo will toe the rubber against Jon Lester who’s making first start after incurring general soreness. You can read about the pitching match-up here, and we’ll post the starting lineup when it becomes available.
Rays 7/23/13 Starting Lineup
Desmond Jennings CF
Ben Zobrist 2B
Evan Longoria 3B
Wil Myers RF
Matt Joyce DH
Yunel Escobar SS
James Loney 1B
Jose Molina C
Sean Rodriguez LF
Hernandez RHP
Noteworthiness
- Marc Topkin tweeted, “David Price says Braun suspension a “step in the right direction” and that “we all want a level playing field.'”
- Matt Moore was the ninth lefty to shut out the Red Sox at Fenway allowing two hits or less.
- Per Elias, Moore threw the 66th complete-game shutout by a LHP against the Sox in the 102-year history of Fenway Park.
- Wil Myers is back in right, hitting fourth.
- This could be another one of those rainy nights at Fenway. Roger Mooney of the Trib tweeted a photo of a storm that’s brewing:
