Homers Rain in Detroit : Angels: Tettleton begins the storm with a shot over the roof and ends it with a three-run blast in a 9-2 Tiger victory.

Mickey Tettleton figured Kirk McCaskill wanted him to put the ball in play, and the Tiger catcher happily obliged.

Tettleton put it in play--for a passing motorist on Trumbull Avenue, behind Tiger Stadium’s right-field stands.

He launched McCaskill’s 3-and-2 slider high and far into the humid Detroit night, putting his name in the club’s record book and sending the Tigers to a 9-2 victory over the Angels Friday.

Tettleton’s fourth-inning blast, which followed a walk to Cecil Fielder, was the 24th to clear the Tiger Stadium roof since a second deck was added in 1938 and the 21st to clear the right-field roof.

“He was all over it,” said McCaskill (6-8), who has lost three consecutive games since winning four in a row. “I think it kind of speaks for itself.”

Tettleton hit a sacrifice fly to deep center field in the sixth inning and added a three-run homer in the seventh against Jeff Robinson for a six-RBI game, best of his career. Before Friday, Tettleton had not homered since May 27.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” he said. “The first one was just a situation where the game was still 0-0, and you’ve got to think he doesn’t want to walk a couple of guys. So he wants to make sure it’s a strike and over the plate. He wanted to make me put the ball in play. . . . You’re going to have nights where you hit the ball hard and you have nothing to show for it, so this is nice. I just wanted to drive in some runs.”

That he did, with a flourish. “It wasn’t a cheapie,” said McCaskill, who hadn’t given up a homer in 42 2/3 innings, since one by the Yankees’ Mel Hall May 14 in New York.

None of the Tigers’ eight hits were cheap, including their other two homers. Travis Fryman led off the fifth inning with a solid shot to left-center field for his seventh homer, and Rob Deer connected to left-center in the sixth inning to give the Tigers a 6-1 lead.

“I read in the paper that one of their woes had been they weren’t hitting the long ball,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said. “They made up for it tonight.”

The Tigers are leading the major leagues with 78 home runs.

The Angels, who had 10 hits against starter Bill Gullickson (9-3), fell 4 1/2 games behind the division-leading Minnesota Twins.

A single, a walk, a sacrifice and a groundout by Luis Polonia gave them a run in the fifth inning, and they scored another in the eighth. Still, with only one double among their 10 hits, they couldn’t muster much of a threat.

“He’s a pretty crafty guy,” Angel designated hitter Dave Parker said of Gullickson, who signed a two-year, $3.8-million contract with the Tigers as a free agent last December.

“He changes speeds real well, and he’s very crafty, very smart.”

Detroit was the second team this season to hit four homers against the Angels--Mike Devereaux, Cal Ripken, Craig Worthington and Tim Hulett of Baltimore each hit one May 6--and the Tigers have hit 11 homers in five games against the Angels.

“I’ve been fortunate that that’s happened often in my starts, which makes it easier to pitch,” said Gullickson, who has a four-game winning streak and is the only Detroit starter to win consecutive decisions.

“I was just riding the wave tonight,” Gullickson said. “You just go with it.”

McCaskill went with a slider to Tettleton in the fourth inning, but the location was off.

“We tried to get the slider in on him and we didn’t get it in,” catcher Ron Tingley said. “It was one of those nights where we made some good pitches, and the bad pitches that we made got crushed. That’s what happens with that ballclub. They don’t have too many guys who try to just poke it through. When you make a mistake, they launch ‘em.”

Said Tettleton: “I think we have the type of team that it’s all or nothing. We have a bunch of free-swinging guys and the ball seems to travel well.”