Frank Thomas hit his 500th home run in the first inning against the Twins today, a three-run shot off Carlos Silva that gave Toronto a 4-0 lead. Thomas raised his right arm in triumph as he reached first base, and the Metrodome crowd gave him a standing ovation. 

Justin Morneau will return to the lineup today, batting fifth, as the DH. He took batting practice on the field, with Manager Ron Gardenhire pitching. “He was killing me, but I’m only throwing 60 miles per hour,” Gardenhire said. Morneau has been out since Friday with a bruised right lung. Gardenhire said the plan is to have Morneau DH through the weekend series at Detroit.

The Twins plan to add a 12th pitcher to their roster following today’s game. Not sure whom that will be. … Luis Castillo is getting the day off. No surprise there. His knees don’t respond very well this early in the day.

Blue Jays: Alex Rios RF, Howie Clark 3B, Vernon Wells CF, Matt Stairs 1B, Frank Thomas DH, Aaron Hill 2B, Adam Lind LF, Jason Phillips C, John McDonald SS. Starting pitcher: RH A.J. Burnett.

Twins: Jason Tyner RF, Jason Bartlett SS, Joe Mauer C, Michael Cuddyer RF, Justin Morneau DH, Torii Hunter CF, Jason Kubel LF, Luis Rodriguez 3B, Nick Punto 2B. Starting pitcher: RH Carlos Silva.

Metrodome. Scheduled first pitch: 12:10 p.m.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 at 9:59 am and is filed under Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.