Orioles 2, Rays 1: Moore pitches well, but not enough offense

In what became a pitchers duel there wasn’t much offense to speak of. Chris Tillman and Matt Moore both pitched well and deep into the game.

The second inning was the only inning the Orioles were able to mount any real threat against Moore. Moore started the game by retiring the first five hitters and looked like he was on a roll. With two outs in the second Matt Wieters singled on a line drive to left field. Moore made his one real mistake that was punished as he didn’t get an inside fast ball in enough and JJ Hardy crushed the ball into the left field seats.

The fastball was inside that Hardy did a good job of pulling his hands in and destroying the ball. I think it was more a good job of hitting than a bad pitch as it was about hands high and on the inside edge of the plate.

For those looking for a trade involving a pitcher, Moore did well for himself in front of many scouts tonight. He threw 7.1 innings of two run, five hit ball with one walk and one strikeout.

The ninth inning was pretty chaotic as Dylan Floro who came in to finish the eighth for Moore started the inning out by getting Manny Machado to popup in foul territory to Logan Morrison. Mark Trumbo followed with a weak ground ball that Evan Longoria attempted to make an incredible play that his throw pulled Morrison off the bag, but was ruled a hit.

Enny Romero came in to face Chris Davis. Davis rocketed a line drive that hopped off the wall for a double. But Guyer quickly got the ball to Brad Miller who threw a strike to Luke Maile to cut down the potential insurance run for the Orioles. JJ followed with a ground ball to Longoria that he had to take a step back to field, but he inexplicably threw the ball to second with runners on first and second with two outs and Matt Wieters beat the throw to second who was intentionally walked. The fielder's choice that failed to record an out didn't come back to hurt the Rays as Nolan Reimold grounded out to Miller to end the inning.

The Rays offense offered little resistance against Chris Tillman. Luke Maile hit a solid double in the left-center field gap with one out in the third inning.

Logan Morrison led off the fourth inning on a triple that he poked to left field that hit the edge of the short wall by 162 Landing and the ball shot off past Joey Rickard. The hit was originally ruled a home run, but it was correctly changed to a triple. Steven Souza, Jr. singled on a line drive to center field to score Morrison.

Souza would add another single as part of his two for three day at the plate with an RBI, a walk, and a caught stealing. Those four hits would be all the Rays would manage off Tillman.

Brad Brach and Zach Britton have been lighs out this year as each owns an ERA under 1.00. Tonight was no different as the pair combined for two innings of no hit ball and struck out three.

For those looking forward to next year the game was a success as the pitcher that's likely to get traded made another strong start. Moore has now thrown eight straight outings of six innings or more. Heading into today over the previous seven starts he has thrown 46.1 innings with a 7.19 K/9 and 2.33 BB/9 and a 3.11 ERA.