A 500 clubber drops Angels

CHICAGO -- The Angels found themselves on the wrong side of history Sunday afternoon, but even they had to admit, it was pretty impressive.

Jim Thome hit home run No. 500 of his career in style, blasting a two-run shot to left-center field in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Chicago White Sox a dramatic 9-7 walk-off victory over the Angels at U.S. Cellular Field, on Jim Thome Bobblehead Day, no less.

The White Sox slugger, following former Angel Darin Erstad’s leadoff single in the ninth, capped a comeback from a 7-1, seventh-inning deficit by crushing a full-count Dustin Moseley pitch an estimated 426 feet into the bleachers to become the 23rd player in baseball history to reach the 500-homer plateau.

Thome, the 37-year-old designated hitter, thrust his right fist into the air as he rounded first, tossed his helmet aside after he rounded third and jumped into a pile of jubilant teammates at home plate, as the Angels looked on, stunned and in awe.

“I’m not going to lie to you, that’s a pretty good way to do it,” said Angels reliever Scot Shields, who gave up a game-tying, two-run homer to Danny Richar in the eighth. “I’ve never talked to him, but from everything I’ve heard, he’s a stand-up guy and a great teammate. You’re happy to see a guy like that hit 500.”

After Thome exchanged hugs with teammates and coaches, right fielder Jermaine Dye and closer Bobby Jenks did some heavy lifting, hoisting the 6-foot-3, 250-pound Thome onto their shoulders and presenting him to an appreciative crowd of 29,010.

“I just can’t believe it, I really can’t,” Thome said afterward. “The crowd, and the way they hung in there all weekend long, I would have never imagined doing that. It’s amazing to see your teammates standing there. It’s like a movie script, it really is.”

For the Angels’ bullpen, it was the latest in a series of bad summer reruns. Considered the team’s strength, the bullpen has experienced numerous breakdowns since Aug. 1, accumulating a 4.43 earned-run average and nine blown saves in the last 45 games. Relievers had a 3.63 ERA before the All-Star break

Closer Francisco Rodriguez, Shields and setup man Justin Speier have all had second-half slumps, with Shields’ struggles so severe -- he had a 9.00 ERA in 12 August appearances -- he was demoted from his setup job.

Shields appeared to have ironed out his problems with four straight scoreless outings, giving up one hit and striking out eight in 4 1/3 innings, but he opened the eighth Sunday by walking Juan Uribe on four pitches and falling behind Richar, 2-0.

Shields came back with two strikes, but Richar drove a 2-and-2 pitch over the right-field wall for a two-run homer and a 7-7 tie, giving Shields his sixth blown save this year.

“The guy I walked, there were a couple of pitches I just missed on, and I thought I pitched pretty good to the guy who hit the homer,” Shields said. “I tried to go inside, I didn’t go inside far enough and got hurt. It’s nothing to do with what happened before. It was just something to do with how I executed today.”

Vladimir Guerrero hit a solo homer in the first, Juan Rivera added a two-run shot in the fourth, and the Angels broke open the game with a four-run seventh to back the strong pitching of Joe Saunders, who gave up one run and two hits, struck out seven and walked five in six innings before handing a 7-1 lead to Chris Bootcheck.

But consecutive singles by Richar, Andy Gonzalez and Toby Hall produced a run, and Josh Fields drove an opposite-field, three-run home run to right against Bootcheck to make it 7-5. Richar’s homer tied it in the eighth, and Thome’s ninth-inning heroics won it, dropping the Angels to 77-5 this year in games they have led after seven innings.

The consolation prize: Seattle lost to Tampa Bay, so the Angels maintained an 8 1/2 -game lead in the American League West and reduced their magic number for clinching the division to six with 13 games left.

“At some point we’ll be happy for Jim,” Manager Mike Scioscia said, “but right now, it’s pretty tough.”

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com