Tigers’ Gullickson Stymies Angels, 7-2 : Baseball: Salmon, Van Burkleo homers aren’t enough to rattle Detroit pitcher.

You know those games when two also-rans play late in the season and keep fans riveted in their seats?

Monday’s 7-2 victory by the Detroit Tigers over the Angels was nothing like that. Instead, it was a punchless and downright dull game with neither team creating much reason to stay until the end.

“We got beat. We got beat,” Angel Manager Buck Rodgers deadpanned after the Tigers sealed the victory with a three-run ninth inning.

Detroit starter Bill Gullickson survived solo home runs by Tim Salmon and Ty Van Burkleo to earn his first victory in Anaheim Stadium.

“Gullickson, when he has a lead, he doesn’t walk people,” Rodgers said. “It’s just, ‘Here it is, let’s see how far you can hit it.’ ”

A crowd of 19,999 watched Gullickson (9-6) keep the Angels quiet until the fourth, when he gave up a leadoff homer to Salmon. It was Salmon’s team-leading 24th homer, but his first since July 27. He needs two more to break the Angel rookie record of 25 set by Ken Hunt in 1961.

Salmon’s shot, which barely missed reaching the bleachers above the 386-foot sign on the right-center-field fence, seemed to wake the Angels. Chili Davis followed with a line drive that center fielder Dan Gladden leaped to catch at the 386-foot sign in left-center field.

Greg Myers then hammered a single to center and the Angels seemed primed for a big inning. But Rene Gonzales grounded into an inning-ending double play and the Angels were left trailing, 3-1.

Although Gullickson appeared ready to falter after Myers’ single, he returned to a comfortable groove after the double play. He retired the Angels in order in the fifth and struck out Davis to end the sixth after Luis Polonia led off with a single and stole second.

Van Burkleo’s seventh-inning homer, which landed barely inside the right-field foul pole, was the first of his career and cut the Tigers’ lead to 4-2.

“We had some chances, but we couldn’t get any sustained offense against Gullickson,” Rodgers said.

Said Detroit Manager Sparky Anderson: “Gullickson always keeps you in the game, always keeps it close. He may give up a home run or two, but that’s kind of in his repertoire.”

The Tigers took only what was handed to them and Polonia figured prominently in the giving. His throwing error helped the Tigers in their three-run first inning and his baserunning blunder enabled them to keep their three-run lead intact in the third.

Alan Trammell’s two-out, run-scoring single against starter Hilly Hathaway (4-2) gave Detroit a 1-0 lead in the first. Mickey Tettleton followed with a single to left that scored Cecil Fielder, who had walked. When Polonia attempted to throw the ball back to the infield, it squirted out of his hand, allowing Trammell to score all the way from first base.

In the third, Polonia turned a single to short center field into an out while trying to stretch it into a double. Gladden alertly threw a strike to second baseman Chris Gomez to get Polonia by about 10 feet.

Neither play was bound to impress Angel management, which will be deciding soon whether to re-sign Polonia, a free agent after the season. His salary, about $2.5 million this season, and his batting average, .272, are two factors already working against Polonia.

“You hate to fault a guy for being aggressive,” Rodgers said. “But aggressiveness isn’t an answer for everything.”

After the first, Hathaway held the Tigers scoreless until the sixth when Gomez, an All-American at Cal State Long Beach who has spent only one season in double-A ball and part of this year at triple-A before being called up on July 19, drove in Tettleton with a single to left.