Christian Moore has accomplished a lot in his young baseball career. Prior to the Angels drafting him eighth overall in July, the 21-year-old led Tennessee to a national championship and set program records for career (61) and single-season home runs (34).
But the one thing he never got to do, dating back to Little League, was hit a walk-off. That was until Wednesday, when the second baseman continued his torrid introduction to Minor League Baseball.
In just his fifth professional game, Moore led the Double-A Rocket City Trash Pandas to a 7-5 win at Toyota Field with his second home run of the day -- an opposite-field shot with two outs in the ninth inning to break the tie. The native of Brooklyn, N.Y., collected four hits and drove in three runs to raise his OPS across two levels to 1.616.
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There are hot starts to pro ball and then there's how Moore has played. Through 24 at-bats in five games, he has 12 hits, four homers, 10 RBIs and nine runs. His only unproductive game to date was an 0-for-4 contest on Tuesday, and he quickly learned from that one.
"Yesterday, the approach for them was to throw me offspeeds," Moore said. "Going into today, I had a different gameplan. I was sitting on more offspeeds in certain counts. It was a good day, putting some good swings on it."
True to form, Moore punished the breaking balls all night. On his first trip to the plate, he jumped on a 1-1 hanger and deposited it over the left-field fence. After taking a fastball up the middle in the fifth, he laced another breaking ball to center in the seventh. And when he crushed yet another bender in the ninth, this time to the end the game, he triumphantly flipped his bat, pounded his chest and lifted his right hand to the sky.
Moore has dreamed of such walk-off situations since he was a kid. He's had opportunities here and there but had yet to deliver. Less than two months ago in the NCAA Super Regionals, he came to the plate in the ninth down two runs with two on and two out with a chance to put the Vols ahead and secure a spot in the Men's College World Series.
"I hit a popup, and moments like that, you don't really forget," Moore said. "When you're in the cage as a kid, 'All right, last swing,' That's kind of the mindset you put yourself in -- 3-2 count, I want to hit a walk-off or a game-winning home run. You definitely practice it a lot. For me to actually live it was definitely something cool. Hopefully I get to do it again."
The way Moore is playing, he'll surely have more chances in the future. It's more a matter of where his next walk-off opportunity will come.
The Angels have been known for aggressively challenging their Draft picks. Last year's first-rounder Nolan Schanuel made the Majors just 40 days after getting selected 11th overall. Shortstop Zach Neto (2022 first-rounder) was the first in his class when he debuted in The Show nine months after going 13th overall. Chase Silseth (11th round) was fastest to the bigs among 2021 draftees, with first-rounder Sam Bachman (ninth overall pick) following soon after.
Moore only needed two games with Single-A Inland Empire before getting his first promotion, but he's taking things day by day.
"That walk-off's in the past. I've got to get another one the next day," he said.
The last few months have been a whirlwind, from Knoxville and Omaha to the California League and Southern League. But it's not like he has any real complaints.
"I've been all over, visiting new places that I've never been," Moore said. "It's really cool. At some point, when the season's over, or hopefully I have a long career when it's all said and done, I can kind of reflect and sit down and think about all the places I've been, all the people I've met, all the food I've tasted. ... I've been in so many different places, so many different states in the last couple of months. It's been fun, but it feels nice to have a home in Huntsville."