White Sox End Angels’ Winning Streak : Baseball: Langston gives up a three-run home run to rookie Frank Thomas in the seventh as Chicago prevails, 6-5.

This was merely a loss, not a setback and nothing to obliterate the progress he had made.

Mark Langston wanted to make that much clear after he yielded a three-run home run to White Sox rookie Frank Thomas that carried the Chicago White Sox to a 6-5 victory over the Angels Friday at Anaheim Stadium, ending both his and the Angels’ winning streaks.

“It was a challenge situation. I went at him and he got it. That’s what it boils down to,” said Langston (8-16), who had won his previous three games. “I challenged him and he got it. That’s the nature of the game. I gave him my best pitch and he caught up to it.”

The Angels, who had five consecutive victories and six at home, almost caught up to the White Sox. Thomas’ 412-foot home run in the seventh gave Chicago a 6-2 lead, but the Angels scored twice in the seventh and once in the eighth before Bobby Thigpen silenced them with 1 1/3 innings of one-hit relief to earn his 45th save of the season. That put him within one of Dave Righetti’s major league record of 46 saves, set in 1986.

“You can’t ask for anything more than that. You battle back and get within a run and they bring in their stopper to end it,” said third baseman Jack Howell, whose run-scoring single in the eighth closed what had been a four-run lead to a one-run margin. “Thigpen’s been beaten before. He’s got a lot of saves and he’s a good pitcher. Most times those guys are in a situation where you do or you don’t.”

Thigpen did enough to preserve the victory for Greg Hibbard (11-8) and keep the White Sox 6 1/2 games behind the American League West-leading Oakland A’s. Barry Jones relieved Hibbard with one out in the seventh and gave up a run-scoring single to Devon White, a sacrifice fly to Chili Davis and a walk to Dave Winfield before retiring Lance Parrish on a pop fly to catcher Ron Karkovice.

Langston struggled through his 6 2/3 innings, giving up 11 hits, including three during Chicago’s three-run fourth inning. The Angel starter did strike out nine to increase his season total to 164.

However, it didn’t help that three of the six runs Langston gave up came after two were out. This season, 56 of the 102 runs he has given up were after two were out.

Now he is 2-10 at home and within three losses of matching the club record of 19 losses, shared by George Brunet, Frank Tanana and Clyde Wright.

“I was working behind and I have to work ahead to be effective,” Langston said. “I just didn’t throw strikes.”

He threw a fastball to Thomas, a promising rookie first baseman, on a 3-and-2 count. “I guessed right that time,” Thomas said. “He struck me out twice and I just wanted to make contact. I didn’t try to hit it hard.”

What Langston took hard was his failure to meet his expectations.

“It was disappointing because we rallied back,” he said. “We’ve been showing a lot lately. It’s too bad I didn’t do my job.”

The Angels’ offense was frustrated early, scoring twice in the fourth, when they might have scored more.

Winfield walked with one out and dashed to third on Parrish’s opposite-field single to right. Lee Stevens grounded back to Hibbard, who tossed to first for the out, but Winfield scored and Parrish moved to second.

Dante Bichette walked and Johnny Ray followed with a broken-bat single to left-center that scored Parrish, but Calderon saw that Bichette had overrun second and threw there to get him before he scrambled back.

When the Angels did scramble back to score one in the eighth, it was too late.

Angel Notes

Although rosters expand to 40 today, the Angels didn’t make a mass recall from triple-A Edmonton. Instead, they will activate several players off the disabled list today and gradually phase in players from Edmonton depending on need and how the Trappers fare in the Pacific Coast League playoffs. . . . Expected to be activated today are catcher Ron Tingley (tendinitis in his right arm), infielder Kent Anderson (strained right hamstring) and pitcher Greg Minton (strained forearm). . . . “We won’t bring fellows in just to have three or four people at every position if it would serve them better to remain in Edmonton,” General Manager Mike Port said. “It will be a player here, a player there. With the job our guys have been doing recently, there’s really no reason to say we’ve got to bring in four, five, six guys.”

Port said he won’t give extra weight to the club’s recent success in assessing the entire season. “We have to see how we do the rest of the way and look at everything in hindsight,” he said. “Certainly, this is the way we hoped things would be. We have to keep the whole thing in perspective and be as objective in our postseason evaluation as possible.”

The recent sale of the Edmonton Trappers by owner Peter Pocklington makes it “50-50” that the Angels will seek a new top affiliate next season, Port said. The franchise might be moved, which would force a switch, but Port said no alternative plans have been made. . . . Pitcher Bert Blyleven (strained right shoulder) threw off the mound Wednesday and Friday and reported weakness in the back of his shoulder. No timetable has been set for his return, but trainer Ned Bergert said Blyleven should be able to pitch again this season. . . . Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy were on the field before the game--but they weren’t called up from Edmonton. The characters joined Chuck Finley, Lance Parrish and Dave Winfield in taping a TV commercial to be aired next week. “We’ve got enough Goofys already,” Manager Doug Rader said.