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Thome's walk-off blast lifts White Sox over Angels

Sep 7, 2008 - 4:50 AM By Gene Chamberlain PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Jim Thome's 30th home run of the season came off Justin Speier in the 15th inning Saturday to give the Chicago White Sox a 7-6 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

The White Sox also got home runs from Paul Konerko and Nick Swisher to offset a season-high four blasts by the Angels and rallied from deficits of 2-0, 5-2 and 6-5 for their third straight win.

Thome's 438-foot shot to right field was his 537th of his career, moving him past Mickey Mantle into 14th on the all-time list. It was Chicago's fifth walk-off home run of the season and Thome's 11th career walk-off blast.

"You know what, you always want to come through in big situations," Thome said. "Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. You've got to stay focused. You've got to stay positive. We won the game. That's the main thing."

"That's Jim's fault we played that many innings," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen joked. "He got the revenge."

Thome struck out facing Scot Shields in the 10th with A.J. Pierzynski at third base representing the winning run with nobody out. Four more innings of futility followed until Thome got the chance to face Speier (1-8) leading off the 15th.

"That's one of those games that just kept going and going," Konerko said. "You just knew it had to be a home run that would end it because it was kind of difficult to get anything going. It was kind of a tough night. We hit the ball well but they were catching it. We were hitting the ball hard."

The Angels had Chone Figgins' first home run in more than a year, back-to-back blasts by Juan Rivera and Mike Napoli and Brandon Wood's ninth-inning solo shot off White Sox closer Bobby Jenks.

"I don't know if that's going to be the greatest win this year so far because we have a lot, but fighting and coming from behind and never giving up even when Bobby gave up the home run - we came back right away - that's a nice thing to see," Guillen said.

Anaheim closer Francisco Rodriguez failed to pick up his 55th save when Alexei Ramirez singled leading off the ninth, moved to third on Swisher's single, then tagged and beat Vladimir Guerrero's throw to the plate on Dewayne Wise's fly to right.

"One thing we've been really good at is holding leads," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "They're a tough club with a good lineup and they have guys who are going to keep coming."

Figgins, the Angels' diminutive leadoff hitter, hit his first home run since August 12, 2007, with one out in the third to give Los Angeles a 2-0 lead. He had used more conventional means to score a run in the first by leading off with a double, moving up on Garret Anderson's ground out and coming home on Mark Teixeira's sacrifice fly to right.

In the sixth, Rivera and Napoli hit back-to-back, two-out home runs off Chicago starter Gavin Floyd, who came into the game with 23 home runs allowed - the fifth-highest total in the AL.

However, the White Sox struck back with the long ball when Konerko hit his 15th home run with two out in the sixth to get Chicago within 5-3. Swisher then tied the score by launching his 24th home run in the seventh after Ramirez led off the inning with a walk.

Speier fell to 1-8, while Ehren Wassermann (1-1) got the win.