Phillies’ lone lefty starter looks Moore like failed gamble
PHILADELPHIA » The Phillies gave Matt Moore $3 million, a one-year contract, and a simple job: Professionalize the back end of a marginal rotation.
The plan isn’t working.
In a 9-4 loss Saturday to the St. Louis Cardinals, the 36-year-old never saw the fourth inning, allowed five earned runs, walked five, was torched for two home runs and threw a wild pitch.
And in a baseball rarity, the lefthander was pulled with cause with two outs and in mid-count against a left-handed-hitting pitcher who’d never had a major-league hit.
A 2013 All-Star long viewed for his potential, Moore has shown little in his three Phillies starts. He lasted just 3.1 innings of an eventual victory over the Mets, and allowed nine hits and five runs in five innings in Atlanta.
By Saturday, he was trending toward useless, particularly in the third inning. After retiring the first two Cardinals, including pitcher Kwang-hyun Kim, Moore surrendered a single to Paul Goldschmidt, walked Nelson Arenado, then watched Yadier Molina’s 396foot home run land deep in the left field seats.
Two pitches later, the boos still resonating from Molina’s blast, Paul DeJong waffled a 415-foot home run to center, before Austin Dean walked and Dylan Carlson doubled to left-center to plate Dean and balloon the St. Louis lead to 5-1.
Plowing through, Moore intentionally walked Justin Williams to get back to Kim, whom he tried to fool with a slow curve that sailed wide and high for a wild pitch.
Joe Girardi sprung from the dugout and motioned for JoJo Romero, and Moore was loudly booed as he retreated to the clubhouse.
“I think today, and especially the first game of the season for me,” Moore said, “I just had a hard time putting the brakes on that inning.”
The oddity of being lifted before being permitted to retire a pitcher did not leave Moore bothered.
“Joe’s the skipper,” he said. “He was done with what he was looking at. And it didn’t matter if it was a pitcher or who was up there. I threw a curveball to the backstop and if wound up being a fine move.
“Right now, I don’t have much of a leg to stand on, so you will never hear me have much to say about a skipper’s decision. It was pretty poor out there in the third.”
Romero coaxed Kim into bouncing to third, where Alec Bohm, quite in character, bounced the throw to first base for an error, Carlson scoring. Tommy Edman did ground to Didi Gregorius at short to end the inning, but Romero was such a disaster in a three-run fourth that Girardi was applauded for summoning Vince Velasquez.
That’s how unsightly the Moore start was: By contrast, the ever-unpopular Velasquez was viewed as a welcome lifeguard.
Their lack of organization-wide pitching depth the reason they took a chance on Moore at all, the Phils are low on alternatives. Velasquez was presentable Saturday. Ever-tender Spencer Howard remains in the Lehigh
Valley tutorial camp, trying to build endurance and strengthen his back. Yet he was not so sore that the Phillies didn’t summon him to New York last week to fill the 27th roster spot permitted for a doubleheader.
Chase Anderson, the No. 5 pitcher in the rotation, will be skipped over Sunday at 1:05 when Girardi tries Aaron Nola against John Gant. While Anderson could be due a bump up in the rotation, Girardi assured that Moore will not lose his turn.
“I think it’s too early to judge,” Girardi said. “Like hitters, pitchers can get off to slow starts, too. His issue today was that he was up in the zone and behind in the count a lot. He left some change-ups up in the zone and that’s a big pitch for him.
“We just need him to locate better.”