What has been the cause of Moore’s troubles? As we noted previously, his velocity has been at the same level, but his command had been off. Far too often, the catcher would be set up outside, and Moore would throw a pitch on the inner half of the plate, or conversely, throw to the outer edge when trying to hit the inside corner. His mechanics just appeared to be off.

Those mechanical issues were obvious during his walk to Lorenzo Cain in the fourth inning. After getting a strike, he threw a pitch where he left his back foot up in the air after the release. On the follow through for ball two, he put his back leg down, but it almost seemed as though he did so absentmindedly. He did put his leg down on the third ball, but the back leg remained relatively low to the ground. On the fourth ball, and the fifth pitch of the at bat, Moore’s leg was in between where it had been on the third and fourth pitches. Four pitches – four different follow throughs.

Quite simply, Moore just has not been able to repeat his delivery as of late. This likely has led to his command issues, where he has been missing his spots by such a wide margin. Thankfully, this may be something that is easily corrected, and Moore can get back to being the pitcher he was over the first two months.

With the continued struggles of Jeremy Hellickson and David Price still on the disabled list, the Rays need Matt Moore to lead their pitching staff for the time being. Getting his mechanics straightened out may allow him to get back to doing just that.

Matt Moore opened the game up and immediately struggled with his command, hitting Alex Gordon with a pitch and then walked Eric Hosmer on four straight pitches.  After a quick fly out to Salvador Perez, Moore then gave up an RBI single to Billy Butler to open the scoring and giving the Royals a 1-0 lead.  Moore managed to limit the damage on a strange 1-4-2 double play as Hosmer was caught trying to take home.

In the bottom of the frame Tampa Bay struck back on a lead-off home run by the red hot Matt Joyce, his 13th of the season.  After a Ben Zobrist walk and a quick out by Kelly Johnson, Evan Longoria came to the plate looking to do some damage.  Longoria crushed a standup double, scoring Zobrist, that bounced off the top of the fence just 2-3 feet from a home run and giving the Rays a 2-1 lead.

Moore seemed to cruise through the Kansas City lineup until he struggled in the 5th by giving up a lead-off single to Jeff Francoeur.  Former Ray, yet now a Ray killer, Elliot Johnson who is batting .528 with 2 homeruns & 5 RBI’s against his former club, crushed a triple down the left field line, scoring Francoeur and tying the game at 2 apiece.  Alcides Escobar then ripped a low liner to Ben Zobrist but he was unable to make a clean play allowing Johnson to score, giving the Royals the lead.  After managing to get Alex Gordon to fly out to right, Eric Hosmer came up next and ripped a double to right putting men at 2nd & 3rd.  Salvador Perez then laced an RBI single to left, further extending the Royals lead.  A Billy Butler sac fly, scoring Hosmer, gave the Royals a commanding 5-2 lead at that point.  Moore finally managed to end the inning after getting the ageless wonder, Miguel Tejada, to strikeout.

After putting the first two runners on in the top of the 6th, Joe Maddon finally lifted Moore for Jamie Wright.  Moore again struggled with his command going just 5.1 innings, giving up 5 earned runs while striking out 4 and walking 4 but throwing only 59 of his 100 pitches for strikes.  Jamie Wright did a magnificent job in relief, holding KC to no runs over 1.2 innings while striking out 1.

Tampa Bay did manage to threaten in the bottom of the 7th and bottom of the 9th but were unable to capitalize after the Kansas City bullpen shut down the Rays bats.

Kansas City tacked on another 2 runs in the top of the 9th off struggling Rays closer Fernando Rodney.

Up next for the Rays is game 3 of the 4 game series against Kansas City at the Trop at 4:10pm with Jeremy Guthrie (7-3, 3.60 ERA) taking on Alex Cobb (6-2, 2.95 ERA)

On May 22nd, Snell had gone 2 perfect innings when a rain delay forced him out of the game. He next pitched on May 29th, but he wasn’t sharp at all as he allowed 5 runs in 4 innings, walking 6 while striking out 1 just like Moore. Then he allowed 4 runs in 3.2 innings in his next start, striking out just 1. But finally in his third start after the rain-shortened outing he started to regain his form, going 5 innings allowing 2 runs on 5 hits, striking out 4 while walking 2. He wasn’t dominant and it was far from his best effort, but he started to look once again like the promising pitcher the Rays know he is. The Rays have to hope Matt Moore can do the same exact thing.

As a prospect in a major league organization, you can’t help but glance at big league team’s numbers every once a while and dream of being in their position. That is especially the case for players at your position. There had to be some moment where Blake Snell was thinking “I hope someday I can be the next Matt Moore.” The process doesn’t go the other way–except for maybe spring training and rehab outings, big leaguers pay little attention to what the minor leaguers are doing. But in this case, Moore has an example right in front of him for precisely what he needs to do. Now it’s time for him to go back to the mound and get back to executing his pitches, just like Snell.