Moore Is Too Much for Angels; A’s Sweep Series With 2-0 Win

As the Oakland Athletics demonstrated once again Sunday, less can be more, provided Moore is your starting pitcher and the Angels your opponent.

The A’s were supposed to have been reduced to the a’s without Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire in their lineup.

Instead they are 13-6 after sweeping the Angels this weekend, with Mike Moore’s 2-0 victory before 25,681 at the Oakland Coliseum providing the finishing touch.

The Angels are 2-5 against the A’s, 0-3 in Oakland and 0-2 against Moore, the free-agent pitcher from Seattle whom they lost to a higher bidder last winter.

Talk about the one that got away: Since snubbing the Angels for Oakland, Moore (2-1) has yet to allow the Angels a run--pitching eight shutout innings in a 5-0 victory in Anaheim and 7 2/3 more on Sunday.

If not for Claudell Washington, it might have been worse. It might have been a no-hitter. Moore, along with Oakland relievers Rick Honeycutt and Dennis Eckersley, limited the Angels to three hits--all of them singles, all of them by Washington against Moore.

And in an Oakland rotation that includes Dave Stewart, Bob Welch and Storm Davis, Moore technically ranks as the Athletics’ fourth starter.

“Man, if that’s No. 4 . . . “ Angel Manager Doug Rader said, shaking his head. “He’s got good stuff. He’s got a great fastball, good command of his slider and now he’s fooling around with the forkball.

“He’s a very difficult pitcher to beat in the first place, and today, he pitched a great game.”

Only once did Moore allow a baserunner beyond first base. That was in the sixth inning, when the Angels loaded the bases with one out, setting the stage for Devon White and Wally Joyner . . . and a classic wasted opportunity.

Oakland was leading, 1-0, scoring a second-inning run off Angel starter Kirk McCaskill (3-1), when Moore sandwiched walks to Kent Anderson and Jack Howell around a single by Washington. Then he worked the count to 2 and 0 to White, the Angels’ RBI leader.

“I thought we’d get him right there,” McCaskill said. “I thought we had ‘em.”

Moore threw White three more pitches--a high fastball, a curveball in the dirt, a slider outside the strike zone.

White swung and missed on all three.

When Joyner followed with a fly ball to center field, Moore was out of the inning and the Angels were out of scoring chances for the day.

“Today, we had one chance,” Rader said. “We had one legitimate shot, and we didn’t get the job done.”

And in such a game, White’s strikeout took on major significance. Two of the pitches swung at were clearly balls three and four. With a walk, White would have forced home the tying run.

But patience has never been a virtue with White, a free swinger who once was quoted as saying he’d rather strike out than walk. You know, walking can be boring--and there’s always the hope of the catcher dropping the third strike.

When someone unearthed White’s fabled better-strikeout-than-walk quote for Rader’s benefit, the manager first grimaced, and then grinned.

“I think that was a statement made by someone who really didn’t think about it too seriously,” Rader said. “That’s like me saying, ‘I’m going to eat that pile of (garbage) over there.’ I mean, what’s that? He was just talkin’.

“I’d take Devo up in there in that situation every day and be grateful. He’ll win more often than not.”

White chalked it up as “a bad at-bat.” He added, “That’s all I have to say about that. Those things happen. There’s nothing you can do about it, you just hope it doesn’t happen too often.”

Said Rader: “It’s a thing you’ve just got to live through. If you try to temper that too much, you might lose the aggressive nature that makes him great.

“It’s a tricky thing. You’d like a player to learn patience through experience than the other way around. It rare to have an aggressive guy nowadays. You want to keep him that way.”

The Angels managed one more baserunner the rest of the way, when Honeycutt walked Joyner with two out in the ninth. Such a pitching collapse prompted A’s Manager Tony LaRussa to immediately replace Honeycutt with Eckersley, who retired Chili Davis for the final out and his sixth save.

If the Athletics are any worse off for the wear and tear on the bodies of Canseco and McGwire, don’t tell the Angels about it.

“That’s still an awfully good club,” Rader said. “They’ve got a good mix of left-handed and right-handed hitters, they’ve got a versatile lineup and they’ve got a versatile bullpen.”

The starting rotation isn’t bad, either. The Angels are 2-5 against it, or at least some of it.

Just wait until they get to face Dave Stewart. Coming off consecutive 20-win seasons, he’s 4-0.

Angel Notes

The Angel offense began and ended with Claudell Washington Sunday, with Washington providing all of three hits the Angels managed against Mike Moore. If Washington had some inside knowledge, it certainly wasn’t contagious. “He’s a finesse pitcher,” Washington said of Moore. “To hit him, you have to stay back on the ball longer. I’m not a home run hitter, so it’s not that hard a transition for me to make.” Moore was only 3-8 against the Angels when he pitched for Seattle, but according to Washington, he’s become a changed man since coming to Oakland. “They’ve taught him a lot since Seattle,” Washington said. “And he’s a fast learner. With him it used to be fastball, fastball, in and out, with an occasional changeup. Now, he’s throwing more curveballs, mixing it up, and then he comes in with a fastball to take the bat out of your hands.”

Washington batted leadoff Sunday as Angel Manager Doug Rader, noting Washington’s career .400 average (8 for 20) against Moore, did some lineup tinkering. Washington said he’s had “some pretty good success” batting leadoff, which he did for Atlanta in the early 1980s and with the New York Yankees last year. “I filled in when Rickey (Henderson) was hurt,” Washington said. “Stole some bases, too. These old legs have still got a few bags left in them.” . . . Johnny Ray made his first appearance in a game since April 5, pinch-hitting for Kent Anderson in the eighth inning. He fouled out to third as the last batter Moore faced.

The A’s fourth straight rookie-of-the-year campaign was put on hold Sunday when the touted Felix Jose was demoted to triple-A to make room for pitcher Gene Nelson, re-activated from the disabled list. Jose, who had 16 RBIs in spring training and was supposed to ease the loss of Jose Canseco, batted just .125 with two RBIs in nine games. His last appearance in a game was April 15, his last start April 13.