Phillips Switches On the Power for Angels : Baseball: He hits his fifth home run in seven games to lead 6-5 victory over White Sox.

You want power? Marcel Lachemann will show you power. The Angel manager does his best Hulk Hogan impersonation, ripping off his jersey after a 6-5 victory over the Chicago White Sox Friday night and proudly displaying three bruises on his left biceps.

Those were courtesy of Tony Phillips, who had grabbed Lachemann’s arm as the manager tried to restrain the left fielder during an argument with an umpire Monday in Minnesota.

“I know he’s strong, I can guarantee you he’s strong,” Lachemann said of his 5-foot-10, 175-pound leadoff batter as he undressed at Comiskey Park. “I have proof.”

As if any more were needed. All Phillips did here was hit his fifth home run in seven games, a two-run shot over the right-center-field fence in the sixth inning that the switch-hitter said might have been his first opposite-field homer from the right side in his 13-year career.

Phillips also walked in the first, singled in the third, doubled off the wall in the fifth and walked and scored the winning run on Tim Salmon’s single, which snapped a 5-5 tie in the ninth.

His totals on this trip: 11 hits in 32 at-bats (.344), five home runs, nine runs scored and eight runs batted in.

“He’s always been a pain . . . on the other side, a tough guy to get out,” Lachemann said of Phillips, acquired in a spring trade with the Detroit Tigers. “I’m glad he’s on our side now.”

There were other power displays:

--Jim Edmonds hit an opposite-field homer in the second inning.

--Chili Davis, after striking out with a runner on third in the seventh, snapped his bat in half over his knee, tossing both pieces aside in disgust.

“That was very impressive,” Edmonds said. “One time I banged a bat on my knee and it hurt so bad I swore I’d never try it again.”

Salmon had probably felt like snapping a few bats over his knee lately. The right fielder, who hit five homers in the first eight games, didn’t have an RBI in eight previous games--partly because he wasn’t hitting well and partly because, batting in the No. 5 spot behind Davis, pitchers weren’t giving him much to hit.

But Lachemann leap-frogged Salmon to the No. 3 spot, ahead of Davis, and Salmon responded with three singles, including his game-winner off reliever Kirk McCaskill in the ninth.

Phillips led off with a walk and was safe at second when first baseman Frank Thomas, after fielding Spike Owen’s grounder and touching the first-base bag, threw a potential double play ball into left field. Salmon then drilled a single to right, scoring Phillips.

“I had a 900-pound gorilla jump off my back on that one,” Salmon said. “What a difference it was hitting in the No. 3 spot. I saw more pitches to hit tonight than I have in three weeks. But that’s what Chili’s presence can do.”

Damion Easley added an RBI double in the fouth, and Greg Myers had an RBI double in the three-run sixth. The Angel bullpen was shaky, as Mike Butcher allowed two singles in the eighth, Mitch Williams hit a batter and Troy Percival gave up a two-run single to Ozzie Guillen that pulled the White Sox even, 5-5.

But after the Angels took the lead in the ninth, Lee Smith made his 900th career appearance, moving him ahead of Sparky Lyle and into eighth place on the all-time list, and retired three consecutive batters after a leadoff walk for his eighth save.

The victory, which pushed the Angels four games over .500 for the first time since June 5, 1993, made irrelevant a move that Lachemann considered questionable--having Snow try a squeeze play with Salmon on third in the seventh. Snow missed a low inside curve, and Salmon was out in the rundown.

“These guys seem to win in spite of me, so what the heck, they might be really good,” Lachemann said.