Angels aren’t showy types

Barry Bonds is coming to town this week, and he’s one home run from tying Hank Aaron’s record of 755.

Lock up your medicine cabinets and enjoy the circus.

It won’t be baseball. It will be a spectacle featuring a man whose home run total may someday be followed not by an asterisk but by the chemical diagram of stanozolol, one of the steroids he is alleged to have used.

While Dodgers fans debate whether to greet Bonds with cheers, boos or stony silence -- and laugh at the twisted fate that brought the most reviled member of the reviled Giants to Dodger Stadium for this auspicious moment -- the Angels will be at Seattle tonight to play real baseball and begin a three-game series that could determine the ultimate direction of a season that has taken some very odd turns.

Again pounding out a win without home-run power, the Angels on Sunday demolished the Detroit Tigers, 13-4, sweeping the teams’ three-game series at Angel Stadium by a cumulative margin of 34-13. The Angels hit only two home runs in that spree for a total of five runs, both on Saturday.

It’s not that they think home runs are overrated. Or that they don’t long for the long ball, especially with Vladimir Guerrero’s home-run famine extended to 27 games and 109 at-bats, each a career-worst.

And the last few days aside, they are bound to need another power threat to survive deep into the playoffs. Their recent run-scoring binge shouldn’t seduce General Manager Bill Stoneman into thinking otherwise, although the ever-cautious Stoneman may not make a deal before Tuesday’s non-waiver trade deadline.

Manager Mike Scioscia, whose team has won four straight games after losing seven of 11 after the All-Star break, knows there’s no sense in being passive and wishing for miracles. He’s determined to make the best of what he has, and he believes that the Angels have regained their stride after a post-All Star lull.

“We’ll welcome home runs. We’re not going to give them back,” he said, smiling.

“I think we have to be realistic about the makeup of our club and realize we have to score without home runs. We have to run the bases and we have to keep going, and our guys have been doing that.”

They didn’t wait Sunday to beat up on the Tigers’ feeble bullpen, instead tattooing starter Jeremy Bonderman for nine hits and 11 runs in 2 1/3 innings. They were led by Chone Figgins’ three singles in his first three at-bats out of the leadoff spot, but Orlando Cabrera reached base three times and scored twice, and Gary Matthews Jr. drove in three runs, two on a triple in the Angels’ four-run first inning.

Aside from starter Dustin Moseley’s inability to get the out he needed to make it through five innings and earn the victory, the Angels played well because they played the aggressive, peck-opponents-to-death game that has been, by necessity, the foundation of their success.

They collected nine singles among 13 hits, capitalized on two wild pitches by Bonderman and two more by Bobby Seay and stole three bases, two on a double steal when they had an 8-1 lead.

If they played as if they were inspired, it’s because they were.

The prospect of testing themselves against the Mariners, who have won three straight and trail them by four games, was incentive enough for the Angels to put some oomph in their collective step and finish off the Tigers with surprising ease.

“We know we’re going to play in Seattle. I think everybody got pumped up today to go to Seattle with a victory, you know,” Cabrera said.

“Thinking about Seattle, going back to Seattle, made people realize we need to get back on track. And Detroit being such a good team, we need some fire.”

They had plenty of fire in their proverbial belly, and at the best possible time.

The Angels are 7-2 against the Mariners this season. They swept a three-game series at Anaheim in April, took two of three at Seattle in mid-May and two of three again at Angel Stadium in late May.

Scioscia insisted that it’s too early to look at the standings, but if the Angels can win this upcoming series, they would gain some breathing room while polishing the small-ball style they’ll have to play to perfection if Stoneman doesn’t acquire a big bat.

“Seattle’s been playing really well and we’ve been playing well and this is probably the matchup everybody’s been waiting for, including us,” Matthews said.

“It’s getting to that time of year where you want to see what the guys behind you have to offer, see how they’re shaping up. Obviously, there’s quite a bit of time left, but there’s nothing wrong with going out on the road and continuing to play the way we’re capable of playing and making a statement.”

The best statement they can make is to play good, solid baseball, and leave the circus act to Bonds.