June 3, 2014: Sent to Syracuse With Ryan Zimmerman returning from a fractured thumb, Moore is again the odd man out. In 16 games, including 11 starts, since his latest recall he hit .225 with a homer and a double. But he has been with the Chiefs ever since, hitting .288 with eight homers -- including a walkoff Thursday night -- in 250 at-bats at Class AAA.

May 11, 2014: Called up from Syracuse Before the series against the Athletics is over, Moore returns to the majors to take the place of the injured Adam LaRoche. He starts that day, going 0 for 3 in a loss to Oakland.

May 7, 2014: Sent to Syracuse After appearing in 18 games with just five starts, Moore, hitting .200, is caught in a numbers game. The Nationals needed a roster spot for right-hander Doug Fister, who was returning from the disabled list, and they elected to keep three catchers as they headed into an interleague series at Oakland.

April 6, 2014: Called up from Syracuse Moore went 0 for 4 in the Chiefs’ opener, but got his chance when Hairston went on the disabled list with a strained oblique.

March 25, 2014: Sent to Syracuse Moore hit .265 in spring training, but was squeezed out because the club kept Hairston and Nate McLouth as extra outfielders. “Tyler’s history is that when he has consistent at-bats, he does well,” Manager Matt Williams said. “It’s tough when you’re not getting those at-bats. He’s a player that needs them to stay sharp.”

Aug. 17, 2013: Called up from Syracuse Playing every day for the Chiefs since his July demotion, Moore hit .367, slugged .664 with eight homers and 38 RBI. He gets another chance because right-hander Taylor Jordan strained his back. He remains in the majors the rest of the season, hitting .344 with an .834 on-base-plus-slugging percentage over his final 21 games.

July 8, 2013: Sent to Syracuse The Nationals trade for veteran outfielder Scott Hairston, who is accustomed to the sporadic playing time that comes with a reserve role. Thus, after appearing in only four games over nearly two weeks and going 1 for 11 with a solo homer, Moore returns to the minors. “We still think that he’s got the potential and the ceiling to be an everyday first baseman,” General Manager Mike Rizzo said at the time. “And he needs to play.”

“I had the poor-me attitude,” he said. “I had the ‘it-should-be-me-up-there’ thinking. And it’s sad to say, but I almost looked at it as: ‘I’m better than this. I shouldn’t be here.’ I almost threw away a month-and-a-half of my season because of that. . . .

“It can happen to a whole clubhouse. The popular thing to say is, ‘We should all be there.’ So if we’re all negative, we all kind of feel comfortable being negative around each other. It’s a vicious cycle.”

Thus, the most delicate and significant of Harris’s daily tasks can be monitoring the mental state of some six minor league teams simultaneously. “Such an underrated part of the job,” Harris said. But it’s obvious: The Nationals can’t have players giving away six weeks of their seasons because they’re mad at the organization for perceived slights.

“More often than not,” Harris said, “these are difficult conversations.”

And yet Moore, even at the low points, has made it easy. “He set every record we had,” said Jeff McClaskey, Moore’s coach at Northwest Rankin High, “and he was humble the whole way.” The son of a school principal and a nurse who grew up in the county seat of Brandon, Miss., Moore is, Harris said, “the consummate professional. He has unbelievable class as a player and a man.”

“Just always try to see the good in things,” Moore said. “Sometimes, this world can be hard.”

He said this sitting outside the Hilton Providence, his bed beckoning. His wife was nearly 1,400 miles away, tending to her job and their house — to their lives, of which he’s a part just half the year. “If there was any security,” he said, “she’d be here.” But there isn’t, so she’s not. The next day’s game started at noon.

Moore’s been there before

When Moore took his spot in the batter’s box against Hembree, Chiefs outfielder Steven Souza Jr. was on first base. Moore already had a double, and here was his chance to tie up a game on a July night in a dank neighborhood on the outskirts of Providence.

Two seasons earlier, the Nationals Washington trailed by a run in the first postseason game in franchise Nationals history. Men were on second and third in the eighth. And then-manager Davey Johnson called on Moore to pinch-hit.

“Biggest at-bat of my life,” he said. Facing Cardinals left-hander Marc Rzepczynski, Marc Rzepcynski, Moore flared a single into right field that scored Michael Morse to tie and Ian Desmond to take the lead. The Nationals won.

Here, in July in Pawtucket, such moments can’t be created from thin air. Hembree didn’t play along anyway, and Moore laid off four straight pitches, drawing a walk. Brandon Laird, the next hitter, flew out to end it, and Moore jogged into the dugout, then walked into the clubhouse, which was dead quiet even 15 minutes later. Players sifted over what’s considered the best spread in the International League, on this night beef tips or baked scrod, broccoli and loaded baked potatoes. A fridge stocked with a few Bud Lights and Coors Lights went untouched. At any level, a loss is a loss.

“You just try to process your night,” Moore said. “You think about the pitches you wish you wouldn’t have swung at, happy about the pitches you got a hit on that you did swing at. But you can’t dwell on it. When I leave here, it has to be gone.”

He shuffled to the shower. At 9:30 a.m. the next day, he was back at the park, back in this room, back with these guys, back playing cards, back taking a few cuts in the batting cage under the stands. Moore has also joined the Chiefs’ Bible study, which draws on his Mississippi roots.

“Sometimes, you get sent down, and it’s just discouraging, and you try to figure out some of the pieces to it,” Moore said. “You just get lost. You’re trying to understand why everything’s going on, and a lot of times, I just read the Word, and it really helps out. It’s the rock.”

The other rock, though, is each other. It is, above all else, what minor leaguers have. No one else has tasted what they’ve tasted — the hotels, the food, the money, the crowds, the intensity — and then been forced to eat gruel for months at a time. The Chiefs play Ping-Pong in their home clubhouse. The visitors’ clubhouse at McCoy has a foosball table, and it saw action. The card games, the breakfasts, the saying “Hey” to guys you saw just hours before — it makes it all tolerable.

“Whatever it takes to stay sane,” Moore said.

Two boxes of Dunkin’ Donuts sat on a table across the clubhouse. The MLB Network squawked from the television, news of the trade deadline, something that could have affected anyone in that room. Zach Walters, an infielder with the Chiefs called up to the Nationals earlier in the month, was dealt to Cleveland. “Crazy,” Moore said.

Yet he doesn’t know whether he’ll be here next year. LaRoche is a free agent, but is having a fine season and could be re-signed. Ryan Zimmerman could also take over at first base. The outfield has Bryce Harper, Denard Span, Jayson Werth. Where would that leave Moore?

“I’ve said for a couple of years I would love to see him get traded,” LaRoche said. “Selfishly I want him here, because I like being around him. But this guy could be an impact player playing every day for somebody. It’s just a bad situation here.”