In a day filled with drama for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Matt Moore produced some additional riveting theater to cap the night. He threw 72 strikes to 23 balls.
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“It stinks, no way around it”, catcher Buster Posey said.
Moore came up just short of throwing the 18th no-hitter in Giants franchise history, and the first by a Giant against the Dodgers since Rube Marquard in 1915. Nothing would keep him from a 4-0 win over the Dodgers.
Posey had a head-slumping reaction to Seager’s hit, saying, “I think my facemask nearly hit the dirt”.
That’s especially true here, and especially now. The worst team in the Majors in the second half was in danger of getting swept by a bitter rival and falling four games out of first.
In his fifth start as a Giant, Moore showed his value. Yes, the Giants still lost the series and dropped a little more ground in the standings. It was a Diamondbacks Double-A team against which Moore threw his only professional no-hitter in 2011. “Not after a win like tonight’s”. He was traded over from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for a package headlined by third baseman, Matt Duffy. “We had to win today, this game was bigger than any game we’ve had all year”. “We had to win”. With the way Moore was pitching, a one-run lead was enough. But Seager, the National League Rookie of the Year favorite, smacked a single into right field to end his dream.
It was a hard and emotional day for the Dodgers as beloved teammate and backup catcher A.J. Ellis was traded to the Phillies earlier in the day. It was a body blow and players readily admitted it. Moore took advantage. If he throws like that, we’re going to have our work cut out. Span noticed the change from center field, calling the pitch “the equalizer”.
Only once in his career had Moore gone seven innings or more while allowing only one hit. Moore’s left fielder was Stephen Vogt, and the opposing pitcher was Jarrod Parker.
“Listen”, Bochy told him. “I know what a great opportunity you have here …”
“I’m telling you, I couldn’t feel better”, Moore responded. Despite speculation that Giants manager Bruce Bochy would pull Moore because he’s a former Tommy John guy, and also because 119 pitches is a lot for any pitcher regardless of medical history, after a brief discussion with Bochy in the dugout, Moore took a bat and led off the top of the ninth inning for the Giants. Both he and Bochy, though, said they do not anticipate that being an issue. Later, he was asked about the state of his surgically-repaired elbow and he said the thing he’s most looking forward to is the end of questions about the state of his elbow. In the Moriarty High graduate, they saw a left-handed pitcher with the kind of emerging stuff that wouldn’t be available on the free-agent market, no matter the cost.
Thursday night was special, Moore said, and not just because of the near-historic result. “I appreciate the skip taking my word for it there”.
Moore’s bid very almost ended at the start of the ninth.
“Giving up a base hit right there is part of the game”. “You’re holding your breath until you see him squeeze it”. “As soon as I caught that, I thought for sure he would get it”. Seager was celebrating a bobblehead night, and he brought a crowd of 53,297 to life by blooping an inside fastball into shallow right.
So how was he able to get so close to a no-hitter?
“As soon as I caught that, I thought for sure he’d get it”, Span said. “It was a fun ride all the way up until that point”. The Giants won, but under the circumstances, it had to feel like a pretty goddamn awful win. It would have also given the Giants five no-hitters in five consecutive seasons, breaking an all-time baseball record.
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Matt Moore #45 of the San Francisco Giants throws a pitch against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on August 25, 2016 in Los Angeles, California.
