The Rays Tank: Less Moore, again

A sweep of the Orioles at the Trop would've been a nice way to end the weekend, but the Rays lost 10-7 after another shaky start from Matt Moore.

Ian, being the DIPS believer that he is, took a look at Moore's line, then provided a break down of each of the 12 hits he gave up in the post game recap, in an attempt to understand exactly what happened.

We've wondered "exactly what happened" a lot recently with Moore, whose early season success seems more and more to be just that.

In his last two starts he's only pitched a total of seven innings, has given up 15 runs (14 earned), 19 hits, walked seven, struck out seven, and given up one home run. In comparison, he pitched 62 innings over his first 11 starts, allowed only 15 earned runs, 39 hits, 28 walks, struck out 57, and gave up only seven home runs. His run totals alone are cringeworthy.

Maddon is crediting the schedule shakeup from the Indians series as the trigger:

"It started in that Cleveland thing," manager Joe Maddon said. "One inning and 11 pitches, and then we gave him several days off and he goes to Detroit, not so good there, and then, of course, today was not good, either."

Moore doesn't appear to know what's wrong, but reassured that it's not injury-related:

"It's nothing physical. There's no pain. I don't feel weak. I really do not know what to speak of it," Moore said. "It's something that I feel my fastball is my biggest weapon, it's what I need to pitch with for me to be successful. Obviously it'd be nice to be throwing 95 again, sitting right around there, but those are things that are out of my control right now."

Moore also felt that his outing against the Tigers versus that against the Orioles were completely different, as a lack of control resulted in six walks in Detroit, while "missing in the strike zone, giving up hits on pitches "that were way too good," including six in two-strike counts" was the problem Sunday.

Though the 8-0 pitcher who began the season doesn't seem to be around much of late, Maddon doesn't see much of a difference, saying that Moore has not been "a command kind of a pitcher...[and that] right now he's making mistakes that are being hit," contrary to the mistakes that weren't hit in April and early May.

Can't help but wonder what type of shape Rays pitching would be in if Moore hadn't begun the season like he did, with the state of David Price and the shakiness of the bullpen.

Links:

- It was revealed yesterday that Diamondbacks pitcher Brandon McCarthy suffered a seizure last week, an unfortunate side effect of being struck in the head with a line drive last fall.

- The Marlins are 8-3 against the Mets this season, and 10-41 against everyone else. So, the Mets made some roster moves after being swept by the fish this weekend.

- Matt Kemp? Hanley Ramirez? At least the Dodgers have Yasiel Puig.