Reds: Moore gets a shot CONTINUED FROM PAGE CI from 60 feet, 6 inches is a young guy who hasn't yet built a reputation, the result can be that much sweeter, for the player and the fan. It is there that Marcus Moore finds himself. The Reds acquired Moore from the Rockies on April 10, 1995, for Chris Sexton. The Rockies had run out of patience with Moore. Reds General Manager Jim Bowden, who never met a 96-mph fastball he didn't like (witness the late-blooming Hector Carrasco), saw a closer-in-waiting in Moore. "It always make you feel good when somebody shows confidence in you," Moore said. "The Reds have shown that in me. They believe in me. Now, it's up to me to live up to my part of the deal." One of the raps on Moore was that he didn't throw strikes. Last season, he split time between Double A Chattanooga and Triple A Indianapolis. He began the season at Indy, walking 14 batters in 1223 innings. In Chattanooga, he walked 34 batters in 43Vi innings, striking out 57. But this spring he has thrown strikes. It is why he won the closer's job until Jeff Brantley's foot heals. "That was the first step for me show in spring training that I could be coached, that I can listen, that I can throw strikes," Moore Today's game Who: Indians vs. Reds When: 1:35 p.m. Where: Columbus, Ohio Pitchers: Charles Nagy vs. Mark Portugal Ontheair:WLW-AM(700) said. Reds manager Ray Knight said: "Marcus has realized he can pitch down and be effective. (Pitching coach) Don Gullett has worked hard with him, forcing him to think down. Whenever Marcus would get up in the zone, Don would stop him right there, and say, 'No, no, no,' and go back to square one and get him back down." You can't close if you can't throw strikes. "You have to know where the ball is going," Brantley said. "Hitters tend to concentrate at the end of the game, especially if it's a one-run game. They're less apt to give an at-bat away. . .t. I haven't said much to Marcus about pitching, because that's something that comes over a period of years. But one thing you can do, and you can do it today, is throw that first pitch for a strike. That gives you a lot better chance to get those guys out quickly." Brantley has started, closed, and done everything in between. He knows of what he speaks. And he knows that confidence comes with success, not in a clubhouse conversation. "No matter how many times you sit a guy down and tell him 'Your stuff is good enough,' it he doesn't believe it, it doesn't matter," Brantley said. "Ask (Atlanta's) Mark Wohlers. For a few years there, even though he was throwing the ball 97, 98, what your gut tells you that you're doing is what you rely on. If you don't feel like you're throwing 98 miles an hour, you don't have the confidence that would otherwise come with a 98-mile-an hour fastball." The blast-furnace quality of closing could help Moore. "If he can use the excitement, the adrenalin rush, to keep from feeling inadequate, to keep his past problems with throwing strikes in the past, to keep the negative feelings out of his mind and all those things do run through your mind, whether you admit it or not then it will help him," Brantley said. "If he can concentrate on the excitement of the opportunity, it will block out a lot of the other stuff. The simpler he makes it, the better it is."