Angel Theater in the Round

The Angels beat the Chicago White Sox on a wing and a prayer. The wing of outfielder Juan Rivera, who cut down the potential winning run at the plate in the 11th inning, and what seemed like divine intervention on the part of some greater being -- a guardian Angel, perhaps? -- watching over Vladimir Guerrero on the basepaths in the 12th.

After loafing out of the batter’s box and nearly getting thrown out at second on his double to open the 12th, Guerrero made a mad dash home, scoring all the way from second on Bengie Molina’s sacrifice bunt, to give the Angels a bizarre 6-5 victory over the White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field on Friday night.

Former starter Kelvim Escobar gave the Angels three brilliant relief innings, Rivera extended the game when he gunned down Aaron Rowand at the plate in the bottom of the 11th, and Francisco Rodriguez struck out the side in the 12th for his 36th save, keeping the Angels a game ahead of Oakland in the American League West.

But it was the peculiar -- some would say ill-advised -- play of Guerrero at the end that left the Angels bewildered, wondering how two glaring wrongs on the basepaths could add up to such a big right.

“He’s got a golden horseshoe somewhere,” Angel pitcher Jarrod Washburn said of Guerrero. “Things seem to work out for him. He’s almost thrown out at second on a [sure] double, and then he scores from second on a bunt. C’mon, that doesn’t happen.

“You think you’ve seen it all in this game, and then something happens every few games where you shake your head and think you’ll never see it all.”

Guerrero opened the 12th with a drive to deep left-center and, thinking the ball was gone, jogged halfway to first. When the ball hit the base of the wall, Guerrero stepped on the accelerator, steaming toward second and sliding in just ahead of Rowand’s strong throw from the gap.

Molina dropped a slow-rolling bunt to third baseman Geoff Blum, who threw leisurely to second baseman Tadahito Iguchi, who was covering first. Guerrero rounded third and ignored Coach Ron Roenicke’s verbal stop command, bolting for the plate. If that didn’t surprise the White Sox, it caught them flat-footed. Iguchi’s throw home was slightly up the third-base line.

Chicago catcher A.J. Pierzynski made a lunging catch but had to use his glove hand to break his fall. Guerrero tiptoed around Pierzynski, who was unable to lift his glove high or wide enough to make the tag, and Guerrero hit the plate with his left hand.

“It’s an aggressive baserunning play, but I don’t think it’s one we’re going to design unless you’re Willie Mays Hayes,” Manager Mike Scioscia said, referring to the Wesley Snipes character who scored on a similar play to win the pennant in the movie “Major League.”

Scioscia said Guerrero read the play and reacted.

“Vlad was trying to create something,” Scioscia said. “It’s a low-percentage play, but I’m all for forcing the action.”

Scioscia wasn’t all for Guerrero’s baserunning to open the inning.

“Vlad knows he shouldn’t have been watching that ball,” Scioscia said. “We already talked to him about that.”

Guerrero left the clubhouse without talking to reporters.

“That ball he thought was a home run, I think that bothered him some, and he tried to do a little more,” Roenicke said. “It turned out good, didn’t it?”

If not for Rivera’s throw in the 11th, there would have been no oddities in the 12th.

With runners on first and second, Juan Uribe grounded a single through the shortstop hole, but Rivera, who was hitless in six at-bats, charged and threw a laser to the plate, where Molina swiped his tag on a diving Rowand.

“He threw a bullet, and Bengie made a great tag,” Scioscia said. “For a guy who was struggling at the plate, it’s good to see he kept his head where it needed to be. Needless to say, that was a huge play.”

Both starters struggled -- Washburn was tagged for five runs and seven hits, including homers by Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye, in five innings, and White Sox left-hander Mark Buehrle gave up five runs and 10 hits, including Robb Quinlan’s tying home run in the sixth, in six innings.

But five Angel relievers combined for seven scoreless innings, Escobar holding the White Sox hitless in the seventh, eighth and ninth, and three Chicago relievers blanked the Angels for five innings before the fateful 12th.

Highlighting the White Sox bullpen effort was Bobby Jenks, a former Angel prospect who was not protected on the Angels’ 40-man roster last December and was claimed by the White Sox for $25,000.

After giving up a leadoff single to Orlando Cabrera in the ninth, Jenks retired nine of 10 batters, five by strikeout, buzzing a 100-mph fastball by Garret Anderson for strike three and snapping off a 70-mph curve on Guerrero for strike three in the ninth.

The White Sox threatened in the bottom of the 10th when Scott Shields walked two with one out, but Angel second baseman Zach Sorensen, who made diving stops in the first and fourth innings, turned Konerko’s low liner into an inning-ending double play.