Moore Shines Against Yankees: Hit and key defense in his return to NYC

Christian Moore Shines in Yankee Stadium Debut

Christian Moore’s first visit to Yankee Stadium was as the second baseman for the Los Angeles Angels, despite having grown up as a Yankees fan, just 20 miles from the stadium.

My father is a big Mets fan. We used to argue about that all the time when I was a kid. My brother and I were Yankees fans, so we definitely had a lot of jokes at home, but it was all friendly. Everything was fine.
Christian Moore

Three days after his debut in the Major Leagues, Moore hit a triple against right fielder Aaron Judge, getting his first hit in the big leagues. In addition, in the 11th inning, he made a throw to get Paul Goldschmidt out at the plate, which helped the Angels beat the Yankees 1-0 on Monday night. Moore grew up in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, near the border with Queens. The 22-year-old player was supported by about 40 family and friends at Monday’s game, including his parents, Charles and Lazette, his sisters Tysheena and Cynnamon, and his brother CJ. Christian was a two-way player at Suffield Academy in Suffield, Connecticut, and played three seasons at the University of Tennessee, where he helped the Vols win their first College World Series title with a home run in the decisive third game of the championship series against Texas A&M. He was selected eighth overall in last July’s amateur draft and signed for a bonus of $4,997,500. It started in Class A Inland Empire and, after two games, was promoted to Double-A Rocket City last August 2nd. Moore batted .234 in 34 games with the Trash Pandas this year, was promoted to Triple-A Salt Lake on May 20th, and then batted .350 with four home runs, 18 RBIs, and an OPS of .999 in 20 games. Last Thursday, after hitting a two-run homer and an RBI single in an 8-7 loss in Las Vegas, he received several missed calls from Bees manager Keith Johnson.

I said: ‘Hey, man. Sorry. I was sleeping’. He replied: ‘Don’t fall asleep on calls in Baltimore’. And I said: ‘Oh, what? What do you mean by Baltimore?’ And he said: ‘You’re going to the big tent’.
Christian Moore

Moore flew from Las Vegas to Baltimore. His parents traveled from New York and debuted on Friday night, going 0-3 in a 2-0 defeat. He said he attended 15-20 Mets games as a kid, but Yankee Stadium was a new experience. Batting ninth, he connected a fly ball in the third and sixth innings. Then, with two outs in the eighth, he hit a line drive to right field. Judge attempted a backhanded catch, but the ball landed in front of the two-time American League MVP and rolled to the wall. Moore slid headfirst into third base.

His at-bat was much, much better tonight. And I think from this day on they will improve because he got his first hit.
Ron Washington, Angels manager

Moore hit a fly ball to end the inning in the tenth, and then scored in the eleventh as an automatic runner when Nolan Schanuel hit a double against Jonathan Loaisiga. New York had runners on the corners in the bottom and the infield was in when Jasson Domínguez hit a broken-bat grounder to Moore, who moved forward a bit and made a perfect sidearm throw to Travis d’Arnaud. The catcher caught the ball just to the side of third base in time to tag sliding Goldschmidt on the left foot. Moore had the triple ball in his locker and planned to give it to his parents. He hadn’t worried about how long it would take him to reach the Major Leagues.