Issues With Two Outs

Matt Moore is responsible for 22 percent of the two-out runs the team has allowed this season but none of the five starting pitchers for most of this season have done better than the league average. Moore has walked 16 batters with two outs this season while walking only 27 all season meaning 59 percent of his walks in 2012 have come with two outs and are a big reason why batters are reaching base against him in those situations so much more often than the other starters. When examining Moore's splits in situations, he becomes more of a two-pitch pitcher with runners in scoring position and two outs as he throws his breaking ball much less in those situations than he does with the bases empty.

In bases empty situations, Moore throws his fastballs 65 percent of the time, his breaking ball 15 percent of the time, and his change-up 20 percent of the time. When the situation changes to runners in scoring position with two outs, Moore uses his fastball 68 percent of the time and his change-up 18 percent of the time but his breaking ball only six percent of the time. His location on pitches with two outs is also an issue. If you watch the television broadcasts when he has pitched, Brian Anderson is quick to point out how Moore sometimes struggles to finish his pitches and leaves them up. The strikezone plots illustrate what he is talking about:

Only David Price comes close to performing at league average as his numbers as his skills stand out above the rest of the rotation. The issue is odd this season because this has not been a problem in past seasons.

These two-out struggles are not just in certain two-out situations, they are even happening when the team retires the first two batters in an inning:

The sOPS+ split shows how the individual or the team did against the league average; numbers below 100 are good while numbers over 100 are worse.

The immediate thought may be that as Moore shakes off his rookie struggles, that split should quickly even out and they very well may. It isn't possible to look up how David Price affected the split in 2009 when he was going through similar struggles, but this split should get better as the season wears on as it would be rather unusual to see it spike this much from one season to the next given how constant the out splits have been the previous four seasons.

The other factor here is the defensive issues the team has had this season surrounding their unusually high rate of errors. The Rays have committed a league-worst 41 errors this season and nine of them have come in with two outs in the inning which further extends the inning and gives opponents an extra chance or two. As the talent on the defense improves with the return of the full-time players, these numbers should work themselves out.