The Bowling Green Hot Rods have a Major League player to call their own.

Former Hot Rod Matt Moore was promoted to the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday night, becoming the first former BG player to reach the majors.

The left-handed pitcher, the top ranked prospect in Tampa’s system and the No. 3 overall prospect in all of baseball, according to MLB.com, will join a Rays team that has closed to within 31/2 games of the Boston Red Sox. A starter in the minor leagues, Moore will join Tampa Bay tonight in Baltimore and will work out of the bullpen.

Moore’s promotion is another important moment for the third-year franchise, Hot Rods CEO Brad Taylor said.

“People can now go, ‘I remember when that guy played in Bowling Green as a Hot Rod and now he is a big leaguer,’ ” Taylor said. “I think as more people start to see that these guys do in fact progress up the track and that we are a feeder system for our partner, the Rays, it further legitimizes the quality of baseball you can see here in Bowling Green – not just with our team, but with other teams, as well.”

An eighth-round pick in the 2007 draft, Moore went 12-3 with a 1.92 ERA in 155 innings spanning 27 starts in Double-A Montgomery (Ala.) and Triple-A Durham (N.C.) this season. Moore broke the organizational record for a Rays farmhand with 210 strikeouts, topping his record of 208 set the previous season, becoming the first Minor League pitcher on record – dating back to 1988 – to record 200 strikeouts in consecutive seasons.

His strikeout total ranked second in all of Minor League baseball. He also ranked second in opponents’ batting average and led the minor leagues with 12.2 strikeouts per nine innings.

Moore went 8-3 with a 2.20 ERA for Montgomery and was named the Southern League Pitcher of the Year. He threw a no-hitter at Mobile (Ala.) June 16 and participated in the XM All-Star Futures Game at Arizona’s Chase Field in early July.

He joined Durham on July 22 and went 4-0 with a 1.37 ERA in nine starts.

“He’s going to be something special,” Rays pitcher Cesar Ramos told raysbaseball.com. “He’s young, but he has a great head on his shoulders and a great work ethic. You never get to see too many of those guys.

“He just has a special arm. That’s the best way to put it.”

Moore was part of the inaugural Bowling Green Hot Rods team in 2009, starting the first game in franchise history. He went 8-5 for the Hot Rods with a 3.15 ERA in 26 starts, striking out a league-best 176 hitters in 123 innings.

The Rays enter tonight’s game 81-64 after completing a three-game sweep of the Red Sox with a 9-1 victory Sunday.

“It’s exciting, especially for Matt,” Taylor said. “This isn’t a guy who kind of snuck through the system. He got there quick and he earned his way. If you look at what he’s done this year, he definitely earned it.”

Taylor added, from a marketing standpoint, Moore’s promotion can lead to several things for Bowling Green – ranging from selling Rays jerseys with Moore’s name and number in the gift shop to perhaps a Moore bobblehead night next season.

“I think there are a lot of things you can do down the line,” Taylor said. “I think one thing really neat is Matt Moore can become the first name on a new sign we’ll put in the ballpark – ‘The Hot Rods road to the Majors.’ He’s the first guy to travel that road and make it there. Hopefully, he’s the first of many.”