Jacoby Ellsbury stared down at the perfectly framed mitt of Hank Conger. The man who had thrown the pitch, Matt Moore, had already started his walk off the mound, and Ellsbury dropped his bat to the ground as his strikeout ended the frame.
Moore had just finished his fifth inning of work—a threshold he hadn’t passed in his past four outings. But this time, he wasn’t done. Moore pitched 6 2/3 innings of Tampa Bay’s 9-5 win over the Yankees on Saturday afternoon at Tropicana Field, allowing three runs. His fastball had good command, and he used his curveball as his secondary pitch.