I even tried to find a bit of rattle in the first or second inning. It isn't there.
He doesn't have rattle. And I love the quick pace he brings with him.
And the assortment of quality pitches. And the laser control. And....
Heck, he's just good, right now.
In a sense, he's kind of the young Kuma we never had the chance to have or see. By the time we really started using Kuma as a fulltime starter (2013), he was 32 years old. He then ran off four cosecutive seasons with a WHIP of one point zero something. Driven by the fact, of course, that he didn't walk folks. Moore is sniffing at that territory right now, at 23 and a few days. Admittedly, Kuma did it with 7.5 K's and Moore is getting only 5, but let him grow a bit into that.
Moore's two starts are sort of mirror images of one another, btw. He's thrown 100 and 101 pitches, 69 and 68 strikes, 16 and 16 strikes looking, 7 and 7 strikes swinging, 17 and 14 FB's...etc. The other thing he did, right out of the Classic Kuma Way Back Machine, is throw 8 full innings in 101 pitches. Kuma did that once in '15 and once in '16. But he did it 5 times in both '13 and '14, including 3 consecutive starts in May of '14. Felix did it once in '16 and once in '15, although he came really close 3 times that season.
So far Moore is showing the ability to not tax the bullpen AND not tax his arm.
My goodness, I like this kid.
From the Here's an Amazing Kuma Stat Dept: In 2008, playing in the Japanese NPB, Kuma threw 208 innings and gave up just THREE homeruns. Say what????