Thomas Hits 500th Home Run; Gets Ejected
Frank Thomas hit his 500th career home run in the first inning off of Carlos Silva. Thomas hit a 2-1 pitch to deep left-field, hitting th ball an estimated 396 feet. The Metrodome crowd gave Thomas a standing ovation as he rounded the bases and his Toronto team mates met him at the plate to congratulate him. Thomas rounded the bases in his usual head-down fashion.
A fan in the fifth row of the left-field stands, who was wearing a Jason Bartlett uniform, caught the ball and was taken away by security. It is not known if he gave the ball to Thomas, but that is the speculation.
Thomas also tied a season high with 4 RBIs after he hit an RBI double in the top of the third in a 5-8 loss to the Minnesota Twins. Thomas was also ejected in the ninth inning of the game for arguing balls and strikes after he was rung up by home plate umpire Mark Wegner for the second time in the game.
The Blue Jays came out of the gates fast with 4 runs in the first inning, including Thomas' three-run home run. After that the Jays could only manage one more run and did not score after the third. The Twins got a home run from Jason Bartlett and two from Torii Hunter to contribute to their 8-run total.
Interestingly, Frank Thomas hit his first career home run against the Twins at the Metrodome. While Thomas was with the Chicago White Sox he hit a home run off of Gary Wayne on August 28, 1990. Frank Thomas also has 50 home runs against Minnesota, the most he has hit against any single team and the most a single active player has ever hit off the franchise. It is also Thomas's 16th home run in the Metrodome.
Frank Thomas will now look to pass Eddie Murray (504), Mel Ott (511) and Ernie Banks and Eddie Matthews (both have 512) on the all-time home run list. Alex Rodriquez, Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez are all looking to join Thomas in the 500 home run club sometime this season.
All information was gathered from Major League Baseball, the game statistics and ESPN.com
Published by Wordsleuth
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1 Comments
Post a CommentI wrote this article as a joint article with Biggio's 3000th hit and submitted the still in the 7th inning of that Stros game so they better not tell me that someone beat me to it. LOL.
Good reporting.