Sun Sep 7 17:50:14 2008

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Anderson's sac fly sends Halos to win over ChiSox

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Chicago, IL (Sports Network) - Garret Anderson's pinch-hit sacrifice fly snapped an eighth-inning tie and lifted the LA Angels of Anaheim to a 3-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox in the finale of a three-game series at U.S. Cellular Field.

Joe Saunders (15-7) allowed two runs on four hits with a walk and four strikeouts in 7 1/3 innings to earn his first victory since July 30 at Boston. He had been 0-2 in his last six starts.

Francisco Rodriguez, after a blown save on Saturday, worked around a base hit in the ninth to notch his 55th save. He is two shy of the major league record of 57 set in 1990 by Bobby Thigpen of the White Sox.

Paul Konerko and Toby Hall homered for the White Sox, who had won three straight. Chicago remained 2 1/2 games ahead of Minnesota in the AL Central race, as the Twins lost to Detroit on Sunday.

John Danks started for the White Sox and surrendered two runs on five hits and one walk in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out seven in a no-decision.

Danks took a 2-0 lead into the sixth, but yielded a one-out double to Mark Teixeira and a single to Vladimir Guerrero. Torii Hunter followed with a double to chase home one run and Juan Rivera's soft grounder to third against D.J. Carrasco plated Guerrero with the tying run.

Gary Matthews Jr. started the go-ahead rally against Horacio Ramirez (1-4) with a leadoff single in the eighth and raced to third on another double by Teixeira. Ehren Wassermann took over on the mound and kept the runners in place by getting Guerrero on a grounder to third. After an intentional walk to Hunter, Anderson came up for Rivera and hit a foul fly ball down the right field line. Jermaine Dye, instead of allowing the ball to fall for a strike, made the catch and Matthews scored the go-ahead run.

The White Sox went down quietly in the eighth and Rodriguez gave up a one-out single to Konerko before retiring Alexei Ramirez on a ground ball and fanning Nick Swisher to end the game.

Konerko homered for the third time in as many games to give the White Sox a 1-0 lead in the fourth. Hall then connected for his second home run of the season in the fifth for a two-run edge.

Game Notes

Konerko has 16 home runs this season...The White Sox have not swept the Angels in a three-game series at home since August 18-20, 2003...The White Sox will start a four-game series on Monday against visiting Toronto. The Blue Jays will enter the series on an eight-game winning streak...The Angels head home to open a three-game series against the New York Yankees on Monday.