Moore Regains Form, Wins His 18th for A’s

A month ago, Mike Moore appeared to be a cinch to win 20 games and the Oakland Athletics appeared to be a cinch to win the American League West.

Moore, the hard-throwing right-hander the Athletics signed as a free agent last winter, won his 16th game on Aug. 20. Moore had held the Minnesota Twins to four hits in eight innings and had pitched the A’s into a virtual tie for first.

But Moore went into a slump, which is probably why the Athletics are still trying to nail down their second consecutive division title.

Moore lost four of his next five decisions.

The slump ended Tuesday night at Cleveland and Moore, who lost 34 games in his last two seasons at Seattle, still has a shot at 20 victories this season.

Moore held the Indians to two hits and an unearned run in a 5-1 victory that enabled the Athletics to remain 2 1/2 games ahead of the Angels.

His control problems apparently ended, Moore walked only one. He lost his shutout in the sixth when right fielder Jose Canseco dropped Felix Fermin’s fly ball for a two-base error. Fermin eventually scored on an error by second baseman Tony Phillips.

Moore (18-10) set personal highs for victories and did not allow an earned run for the 11th time in 33 starts this season.

“I decided I had been putting too much pressure on myself,” Moore said. “I pretended it was April. So, I went out and pitched the way I did in April. It worked.

Canseco made up for his error by getting two hits, including a run-scoring double in the fourth inning, and scored twice.