The Rays Tank: Moore Set for MRI Today

Starting pitcher Matt Moore left yesterday’s game early with elbow soreness and will undergo an MRI this morning. Per the Rays, there's no reason to believe that it’s anything serious at this time.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-partner="tweetdeck"><p>Moore was removed tonight with left elbow soreness. Tests inconsistent, but no reason to believe it&#39;s serious at this time; MRI tomorrow AM.</p>&mdash; Tampa Bay Rays (@RaysBaseball) <a href="https://twitter.com/RaysBaseball/statuses/453364730292219905">April 8, 2014</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

In his postgame interview, Matt Moore mentioned to Todd Kalas of Sun Sports that coming into camp this year, he had the fear in the back of his mind that he could re-aggravate his elbow by throwing his changeup. He mentioned that once he got into live games, that fear completely disappeared until yesterday’s discomfort.

Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times provided the following video of a portion of Moore's postgame interview in which he discusses when he starting noticing the discomfort during last night's game.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/3HjTKB0JzCQ?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Moore told Bill Chastain of MLB.com,

It is extremely frustrating to have that unknown outcome in your mind. But I don't really care to speculate on what's to come and what if. It's just a matter of waiting 12 hours or so until we get it. … If I had to have a guess, I would assume that things are fine structurally. But that's just the way I like to think about things.

Chastain also spoke with Joe Maddon, who after a discussion

with Head Athletic Trainer Ron Porterfield, mentioned, “he felt like it wasn't like it was last year, but we still have to get it checked out. Ronnie, initially from when he had spoken to the doctor, thought it was something less than last year, but we have to wait for the test to have the conclusive [report]."

Last year, Matt Moore missed 31 games after going on the DL with elbow soreness. Bill Chastain seems to think Erik Bedard would be the likely candidate to replace Matt Moore. Bedard is not currently on the Rays 40-man roster. He is currently on the same throwing schedule thow, as he started for Durham last night.

Per Baseball Reference, the Rays have not won a game in Kansas City since July 24, 2011, and their last series win at Kaufman dates back to July 17-19 of 2009 when the Rays swept the Royals. Chris Archer will look to turn things around for the Rays as he faces Yordano Ventura tonight at 8:10 PM ET.

Links:

-Over at The Process Report, Jason Collette took a look at Matt Moore’s newest pitch, his cutter.

-Matt Klaassen of FanGraphs takes a look at Yunel Escobar’s history and new contract.

-Also on FanGraphs, a look at Jose Abreu’s first week with the White Sox.

-I like clutch bunts and I cannot lie. Beyond The Box Score takes a look at some bases loaded bunt situations.

-If the game only lasted seven innings, when would we get to sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame"?

-Ron Gardenhire gets all fancy with his laminated cheatsheet of all you need to know about the instant replay system.

-Tigers pitcher Evan Reed is being investigated for sexual assault in Detroit. A full investigation is expected to take two weeks.

-Sports on Earth takes a look at the careers of pitchers who reached 500 strikeouts within their first 500 innings.

-What happens if you slow down the phantom cam even more and add some indie music?

-If you have photoshop, lets see your best edit of the St. Pete skyline behind the Trop.