Matt Moore had instilled the Giants with hope.
After a brutal season in which he ranked among the least effective pitchers in Major League Baseball, the San Francisco Giants began to put pressure on Moore.
Manager Bruce Bochy said he had considered skipping Moore in the rotation, and general manager Bobby Evans talked about the idea of allowing Moore to walk in free agency this offseason instead of exercising a $9 million club option.
Then, Moore logged three consecutive strong outings. Then, Tuesday night happened.
In the blink of an eye, Moore lost his command, found the barrel of a few Padres’ bats and gave up four fourth inning runs in a 6-3 Giants’ loss.
After allowing just a lone run through his first three innings on Tuesday, Moore’s first pitch in the bottom of the fourth inning came in at 80 miles per hour, and left Jabari Blash’s bat at 107 miles per hour. The Padres’ rookie right fielder redirected Moore’s offering about as far as he could possibly hit a pitch at that speed, launching it into the second deck of the bleachers in the cavernous confines of Petco Park.
Blash’s blast was a far cry from the way the Padres scored their first run of the game, which came on a Cory Spangenberg infield single that left the bat at 62 miles per hour. According to MLB’s statcast, similarly hit baseballs to Spangenberg’s squibber register as base hits two percent of the time. Balls hit like Blash’s result in hits on nine out of every 10 occasions. Either way, they both produced runs.
Blash’s tape measure home run began the unraveling of Moore, who entered Tuesday’s start having allowed just five earned runs over his last 20.1 innings. Over the past two and a half weeks, Moore had dropped his earned run average half of a point –from 5.88 to 5.38– and given the Giants hope that maybe, just maybe the 28-year-old would return to the form they expected him to hold all season in the month of September.
When Moore is on his game, it’s beautiful. He’s reminiscent of former San Francisco Giants’ left-hander Jonathan Sanchez. When Moore is off his game, it’s brutal. He’s reminiscent of former San Francisco Giants’ left-hander Jonathan Sanchez. Sanchez could be brilliant, but he also bombed out far too often. He showcased tantalizing “stuff,” but kept front office decision-makers from reaching into their pocketbooks because of his stunning inconsistencies.
On Tuesday, Moore wasn’t terrible, but in the fourth inning, he was. And that’s what mattered.
He followed up the gopher ball to Blash by working a 3-0 count on Spangenberg, who he then hit with a pitch. Moore ran the count full on catcher Austin Hedges, and then walked him. Moore’s opposing pitcher, Luis Perdomo came to the plate and laid down a bunt. If not for a fantastic play from Pablo Sandoval at third base, Moore would have thrown the ball away.
Sometimes, getting an out is all a pitcher needs to get back on track. This was not one of those times.
With two on and one out, Padres’ leadoff hitter Manuel Margot stepped to the plate, and crushed a Moore fastball an estimated 420 feet. It turned out, Blash’s home run was not even the furthest ball a San Diego player hit that inning.
In the blink of an eye, a 2-1 lead turned into a 5-2 deficit, and with the way the Giants have swung the bats this season, a three-run gap was far too much to overcome.
Despite a Moore bunt single that resulted in an RBI, and a Denard Span double that gave San Francisco a 2-0 lead in the top of the second, the Giants couldn’t hang on, and they certainly couldn’t come back. Joe Panik smacked his second homer in two nights in the top of the eighth inning, but that was all the late-game offense the Giants produced.
In one brutal fourth inning, Moore undid many of the positives he had created over the last 15 days. Though there’s still plenty of time for Moore to prove to the Giants Tuesday night’s blowup was just a blip on the radar, but it’s the type of blip that’s become an all-too-common occurrence throughout the 2017 season. The jury is still out on Moore’s fate for 2018, but with his work in the fourth inning on Tuesday, Moore didn’t do much to help his case.