Heavy Hitters Knock Sox Off

Angel third-base Coach Ron Roenicke held his left arm out, waist-high, urging Mo Vaughn to look for the perfect pitch. Batting instructor Mickey Hatcher thrust his left arm in front of him angrily, compelling Vaughn to not only look for a good pitch but to demolish one.

Next to Hatcher in the dugout, Manager Mike Scioscia completed the triple-order, flashing Vaughn the green light with a three-ball count and two on in the bottom of the sixth inning of a tie game.

Vaughn then aced his driving test, crushing a Kevin Beirne fastball into the right-center field bleachers, an estimated 430 feet away, for a three-run homer to lift the Angels to a 10-7 come-from-behind victory over the Chicago White Sox before 40,711 Friday in Edison Field.

“There hasn’t been a time this season when I haven’t gotten the green light [with a 3-0 count], but I wanted to make sure I got myself in a good setup,” Vaughn said. “I didn’t want to pop it up or foul it off. . . .

“It’s one of those things you’ve got to be a little older to do. I wasn’t a good 3-0 hitter when I was younger. You have to key down, take a smooth swing, and you don’t want to rush it. You also have to make sure you get a fastball.”

Beirne obliged, and Vaughn put the right-hander’s pitch in reverse, his 26th homer capping a seven-run rally that began with Tim Salmon’s homer off White Sox starter Mike Sirotka.

The Angels’ 25th come-from-behind win obscured another shoddy start by an Angel, as Ken Hill was rocked for seven runs on 11 hits in 5 1/3 innings.

Angel starters have combined for a 10.43 earned-run average in their last seven games, giving up 39 runs on 66 hits, including 15 homers, in 33 2/3 innings. They have pinned the Angels with four-run deficits in the first four innings in six of the last seven games.

“It’s like Yogi [Berra] says, it was deja vu all over again,” Scioscia said.

“We’ve fallen behind far too often, but it brings out the best in this club. I guarantee you one thing, this dugout never quits.”

The Angels cut a 5-0 lead to 5-3 by the fourth, and after the White Sox went ahead, 7-3, in the sixth, the Angels responded with one of their most devastating rallies of the season.

Salmon drilled his 22nd homer of the season to center, making it 7-4. Garret Anderson, who doubled and scored in the second and homered in the fourth, singled to center. After Troy Glaus flied out, Bengie Molina singled to right.

Adam Kennedy roped an RBI single to right, making it 7-5, pinch-hitter Scott Spiezio was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Darin Erstad’s sacrifice fly made it 7-6.

Kevin Stocker tied it, 7-7, with an RBI single to center, setting the stage for Vaughn’s dramatic home run. Reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa blanked Chicago in the seventh and eighth, extending his scoreless streak to 18 1/3 innings, and Troy Percival added a one-two-three ninth for his 24th save.

“You may beat us, but not because we quit,” Percival said. “On a team that’s going to win, you have to expect to come back.

“If you expect to roll over and die, we’d be 14 games back and in last place. You saw us fold our tents in the past. We’re not doing that this year.”

Seven innings earlier, it seemed Percival’s services would not be needed. The Angels pounded Hill for five runs in the second, which included Paul Konerko’s homer, Herbert Perry’s two-run double, Jose Valentin’s RBI double and Magglio Ordonez’s RBI single.

The Angels countered with two in the second when Anderson doubled and scored on a passed ball and Kennedy hit an RBI single.

Anderson then led off the fourth with his 30th home run, a blast to right-center that, accompanied with Glaus’ 30 homers, gave the Angels the third 30-homer tandem in franchise history, following Don Baylor (36) and Bobby Grich (30) in 1979 and Salmon (34) and Jim Edmonds (33) in 1995.

The White Sox loaded the bases against Hill in the sixth and scored on Ordonez’s two-run single off reliever Mike Fyhrie, but Beirne got burned in the bottom of the sixth, and the Angels came back.

“These guys sense they can get back into a lot of games because of their power, and that’s a great sign, it gives you a lot of confidence,” Scioscia said. “But I’d like some more conventional wins, where you get solid starting pitching, early leads and put teams away.”