Anderson Helps Revive Angels, 3-1 : Baseball: Rookie left fielder’s home run, defensive play in sixth inning combined with Langston’s pitching beat White Sox. Lead stays at six games.

Garret Anderson had been reduced from rookie-of-the-year candidate to mere rookie in recent weeks, his seemingly invincible aura diminished by a rash of base-running gaffes and a lack of run production.

But the Angel left fielder made a nice comeback Tuesday night, igniting a tranquil paid crowd of 23,284 at Anaheim Stadium with a defensive gem in the top of the sixth inning and sparking the offense with a homer in the bottom of the inning to lead the Angels to a 3-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox.

Mark Langston, the first Angel pitcher to start on three days’ rest in Manager Marcel Lachemann’s new four-man rotation, gave up six hits and struck out six in seven innings to gain the win and improve to 15-4.

Troy Percival struck out two of three batters in the eighth for his 20th “hold,” and Lee Smith pitched a scoreless ninth for his 34th save, as the Angels maintained their six-game lead over Seattle in the American League West and reduced their magic number to 11.

Catcher Greg Myers provided the game-winning hit, a clutch, two-out RBI single off White Sox starter and loser Wilson Alvarez in the seventh, but the game didn’t end without another medical emergency.

Designated hitter Chili Davis lined a shot off the left-center field wall to score Jim Edmonds with an insurance run in the eighth, but Davis pulled up at first with a strained right hamstring.

Davis, who sat out a month from mid-June to mid-July because of a pulled left hamstring, will be re-examined today and will be available on a day-to-day basis. Angel second baseman Damion Easley sprained his left knee Monday night and will be out at least until the weekend.

“I hope it’s nothing serious, but if it is, it’s another thing we’re going to have to get through,” Lachemann said. “And we’ll get through it.”

For much of Tuesday evening, the crowd seemed to have trouble getting through the game . . . awake.

Fans seemed ambivalent to the action on the field and the accompanying pennant race, but they finally came to life in the top of the sixth when the Angels, trailing, 1-0, made three fine defensive plays to snuff a rally.

Lyle Mouton singled and Barry Lyons walked to open the sixth, and Dave Martinez came on to pinch-run for Mouton. Chris Snopek tried a sacrifice bunt, but Langston fielded it and threw to third in time to force Martinez.

Ray Durham followed with a single to left, but Anderson made a perfect, one-hop throw to Myers, who tagged Lyons on the chest before his foot crossed the plate.

Langston ended the inning by picking Snopek off second, and the Angels seemed to carry that momentum into the bottom of the sixth, which Anderson led off with his first home run since Aug. 20.

“To me that’s the biggest thing, to be able to play both sides of the ball in a game,” said Anderson, who has 14 homers and 64 RBIs this season. “That really picks a team up. I haven’t hit one out in a while, but I don’t consider myself a power hitter. As long as I hit for average and drive in runs, I’m happy.”

Anderson couldn’t have been too satisfied lately. Though he kept his average up during the Angels’ prolonged offensive slump, he had driven in only six runs in his previous 19 games and hadn’t homered in 77 at-bats when he turned on a high inside Alvarez fastball and lined it over the right-field fence.

J.T. Snow singled and eventually scored on Myers’ hit in the seventh and Edmonds walked before Davis’ run-scoring hit in the eighth, as the Angels improved their record to 10-1 against Chicago this season.

“We beat them like this the last four years,” White Sox first baseman Frank Thomas said. “Payback is hell sometimes.”

Chicago, which has won 10 of its last 14 games and is 7 1/2 games behind the New York Yankees in the wild-card race, took a 1-0 lead in the second when Lyons, who has played for seven different organizations in the past six years, doubled and scored on Snopek’s single.

But that was all the White Sox could manage against Langston, who struggled with shoulder and elbow tendinitis in August but has been extremely effective in his last two starts--the left-hander yielded four hits in Friday’s 9-3 victory over Minnesota.

“Actually, I felt as strong as I’ve felt in quite a while,” Langston said about pitching on three days’ rest. “The last outing my arm felt good. Tonight, it felt even better.”