Slugger becomes the 21st major leaguer to reach 500 career home runs.
MINNEAPOLIS - Frank Thomas hit his 500th home run Thursday, routinely putting his head down as he rounded the bases while joining one of baseball's most elite clubs.
The Toronto slugger became the 21st major leaguer to reach the career mark, a milestone that has usually meant an eventual spot in the Hall of Fame.
ST. PETERSBURG - When Devil Rays left-hander Scott Kazmir took the mound Thursday night at Tropicana Field, he was looking for his first win at home in almost a year.
The next time he takes the mound at the Trop, it'll be more than a year since his last home victory. Kazmir gave up six hits and four runs hits in 5 1/3 innings in a 5-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox, before a crowd of 13,496, extending his streak of home starts to 14 without a win.
The victory also completed a four-game sweep by the White Sox despite the fact that they struck out 49 times in the four games, including at least 10 times in each of the four wins. Thursday night, it was 13 times, including nine against Kazmir, who hasn't won at home since July 3, 2006 against Boston.
MINNEAPOLIS, June 28 ? Home run balls hit by the opposition at the Metrodome usually end up thrown back on the field before the player finishes circling the bases. But when the ball Frank Thomas of Toronto hit in the first inning Thursday afternoon for his 500th career home run landed in the stands in left-center field and stayed there, Thomas figured it was bound for eBay or an auction house.
?I didn?t expect to get it back,? he said.
So Thomas was pleasantly surprised when Todd Eisenlohr, a 24-year-old graphic designer from Pennock, Minn., offered him the ball. Eisenlohr, part of a group celebrating his mother?s birthday, reached across two seats to catch the ball ? which, he said, might have hit his father on the head. Eisenlohr accepted an autographed jersey from Thomas, a ball and a bat in exchange.
MINNEAPOLIS --Frank Thomas' family had to catch an early flight Thursday.
"They had to leave for the airport at 1:45. My daughter said, 'Dad, you've got to do it in the first couple of at-bats,' " Thomas said.
Thomas hit a three-run shot in the first inning of the Toronto Blue Jays' 8-5 loss to the Minnesota Twins, becoming the 21st major leaguer to reach the 500 home-run mark. That meant his wife, three children and father-in-law got to see Thomas reach that milestone.
MINNEAPOLIS — Frank Thomas will remember the day he hit his 500th homer — for reaching the milestone and getting ejected.
The Toronto slugger hit a three-run shot in the first inning of the Blue Jays' 8-5 loss to the Twins on Thursday, becoming the 21st major leaguer to reach 500.
He also had an RBI double and tied his season high with four RBIs, then was ejected in the ninth inning by plate umpire Mark Wegner after being called out on strikes for the second time in the game. Blue Jays manager John Gibbons came out to argue and also was ejected.
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