NEW YORK (AP) — Christian Moore’s first visit to Yankee Stadium came as the Los Angeles Angels’ second baseman, even though he grew up a fan of the pinstripes just 20 miles from the ballpark.
“My dad’s a huge Met fan,” he explained. “We argued about it all the time when I was a kid. My brother and I were both Yankees fans growing up so we definitely had a lot of smack talk going on in the house, but it was all friendly. It was all good.”
Three days after his major league debut, Moore tripled past right fielder Aaron Judge for his first big league hit, then threw out Paul Goldschmidt at the plate in the 11th inning to help the Angels beat the Yankees 1-0 on Monday night.
Moore grew up in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, near the Queens border. The 22-year-old had a group of about 40 family members and friends at the game Monday, including dad Charles, mom Lazette, sisters Tysheena and Cynnamon, and brother CJ.
Christian was a two-way player at Suffield Academy in Suffield, Connecticut, and played three seasons at the University of Tennessee, helping the Vols win their first College World Series title with a leadoff homer 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 $4,997,500 bonus.
He started at Class-A Inland Empire and after two games was moved up to Double-A Rocket City last Aug. 2. Moore hit .234 in 34 games with the Trash Pandas this year, was promoted to to Triple-A Salt Lake on May 20, then batted .350 with four homers, 18 RBIs and a .999 OPS in 20 games.
Last Thursday, he woke up after hitting a two-run homer and an RBI single during an 8-7 loss at Las Vegas and saw a couple of missed calls from Bees manager Keith Johnson.
“I said, `Hey, man. Sorry. I was sleeping,’” Moore recalled. “He said: `Don’t sleep through calls in Baltimore.’ And I was like, `Oh, what? What do you mean Baltimore?’ And he was like: `You’re going to the show.’”
Moore flew from Las Vegas to Baltimore. His parents drove there from New York and he debuted Friday night, going 0 for 3 in a 2-0 loss.
He said he attended 15-20 Mets games growing up, but Yankee Stadium was a new experience.
Batting ninth, he flied out in the third and sixth. Then with two outs in the eighth, he sliced an opposite-field liner to right. Judge tried for a sprawling backhand catch, but the ball landed in front of the two-time AL MVP and rolled to the wall. Moore slid headfirst into third.
“His at-bat was much, much better tonight,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “And I think from this day forward they’ll get better because of the fact he got his first base hit out the way.”
Moore hit an inning-ending flyout in the 10th, then scored in the 11th as the automatic runner when Nolan Schanuel doubled off Jonathan Loáisiga.
New York had runners at the corners in the bottom half and the infield was in when Jasson Domínguez hit a broken-bat, one-hopper to Moore, who charged in a bit and made a perfect sidearm throw to Travis d’Arnaud. The catcher nabbed the ball just to the third-base side of the plate in time to tag a sliding Goldschmidt on the left foot.
Moore had the ball from the triple in his locker and planned to give it to his parents. He hadn’t worried about how long it would take to reach the big leagues.
“I just try to put in the work and trust the process,” he said.
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