Moore Just a Perfect Fit in Detroit : Baseball: The Tigers have a surplus of long-ball hitters, giving this pitcher plenty of room to work.

When the Tigers signed Mike Moore to a three-year, $10-million contract in December, 1992, Detroit Manager Sparky Anderson proclaimed he would be the second coming of Jack Morris.

Well, not exactly . . . but for Anderson, who makes a habit of taking hyperbole to new heights with every other utterance, it was almost an understatement.

And as it turns out, Moore is a perfect match for the Tigers. If he were pitching for the Dodgers in the mid-’60s, he might not have a victory yet. But with Detroit hitters turning baseballs into instant souvenirs--they’ve hit at least one homer in 17 consecutive games and lead the majors with 87 home runs--he has pitched well enough to run his record to 7-4.

The team-leading victory total is really the only impressive number on the statistics sheet to the right of Moore’s name. His earned-run average is 5.44. He has walked 58 batters in 86 innings and has given up 16 home runs. Last year, he allowed 35 home runs, most in the American League.

But what the statistics don’t show is Moore’s experience, his savvy, his wile, if you will. Sure, Moore gets burned by the long ball, but on his terms. Of those 16 homers this season, 12 have been of the bases-empty variety and the four others were two-run shots.

Friday night, Chad Curtis and Chili Davis hit home runs off Moore. The Angels had four walks and five hits in the seven innings Moore pitched. But they scored just three runs and the Tigers had another ho-hum victory at Anaheim Stadium, 8-4.

“I started off kind of sluggish,” Moore said. “I didn’t really get warmed up and I wasn’t throwing it very well in the first couple of innings. I just had no rhythm.

“But I concentrated on keeping the ball down and changing speeds, and with this team, if you can find a way to stick around for six or seven innings, they’re probably going to score some runs for you.”

At 34 and in his 13th major league season, Moore is no longer the pitcher who was 19-11 with a 2.81 ERA and 3-0 with a 1.35 ERA in three postseason starts for the Oakland A’s in 1989. Opposing hitters managed only a .219 batting average against him that season.

This year, they’re hitting .252, but Moore remains a key reason the Tigers, who have won eight of the last 11, are headed in the opposite direction of the Angels, who have lost nine of the last 11.

Moore is a master of the pitch-well-enough-to-win school. He has pitched more than 200 innings in each of the last 10 seasons except one. In 1990, he threw 199 1/3 innings.

“If you can throw 200 innings, you’re doing something right,” Moore said. “You’re keeping your team in the ballgame, giving them the opportunity to win.”

That philosophy was made to order for the heavy-hitting Tigers and it’s working for Moore, who has won four of his last five starts. The loss, curiously, was May 26 to the Angels. At Baltimore a week later, however, he earned a victory after giving up eight hits and four earned runs in 5 1/3 innings. It wasn’t the kind of outing that would have made Sandy Koufax happy, but it kept the Tigers in sight of the American League East leaders.

“I’ve never paid much attention to stats,” Moore said. “I just try to keep focused on the bottom line, the wins and losses.”