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Thome hits No. 500 in walk-off win over Angels

Sep 16, 2007 - 11:38 PM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Jim Thome made a milestone homer a meaningful one.

Thome belted career home run No. 500 in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Chicago White Sox completed a come-from-behind 9-7 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on Sunday.

The 37-year-old became the 10th lefthanded hitter in history to reach the milestone, the seventh active player and third this season, joining Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees and Frank Thomas of the Toronto Blue Jays - a former White Sox.

"This is awesome, something I will cherish forever," said Thome of becoming the 23rd player in major league history to reach 500 homers. "To see your teammates waiting for you at home plate, it's a great thing.

"To get to this point of my career, and accomplish this is amazing. ... I don't think it will sink in until I'm home this winter."

Thome needed 6,809 at-bats to reach 500 home runs, the fourth-fastest pace in major league history behind Mark McGwire (5,487), Babe Ruth (5,800) and Harmon Killebrew (6,671).

"I would never have imagined doing that as a walk-off. It's just amazing to see your teammates standing there, it was just like a movie script, it really is.

"All weekend long you're trying to get a pitch to do it with, and I had several of them all weekend long. And as it kept going along I kept trying to tell myself, 'Relax, just let it happen.' In that situation, you're looking for a ball to drive but I was having a really hard time seeing with the shadows. He threw me a changeup, he threw me some really good fastballs, it is amazing, it really is. It is hard to imagine doing that in that situation."

Chicago overcame a 7-1 deficit by scoring eight runs in the final three frames - all on homers - to ruin an exceptional outing by Angels starter Joe Saunders.

"This game went so well. I believe in destiny," Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen said. "Down 7-1 when he got the last strikeout, I told a couple of my coaches, 'We'll have to do it in Kansas City, and he is going to hit it back in the water.'

The home run by (Danny) Richar and (Darin) Erstad got the big hit, the game went well for us, went real good for Jim to finish it up like that.

Saunders completely shut down Chicago, allowing just a leadoff double in the fourth inning to rookie Josh Fields and an RBI single by Jerry Owens in the fifth that cut the Angels lead to 3-1.

The lefthanded Saunders left after six innings with a 7-1 lead, yielding a run and two hits with five walks and seven strikeouts.

But Fields hit a three-run homer off Chris Bootcheck in the seventh to cut Chicago's deficit to 7-5 and Juan Uribe's two-run blast in the eighth off Scot Shields tied the contest.

After Darin Erstad led off the ninth inning with a single, Thome belted a 3-2 fastball from Dustin Moseley (4-3) over the center field wall for his 28th home run of the season on Jim Thome bobblehead day.

Mike MacDougal (2-5) tossed two scoreless innings to pick up the win.

Vladimir Guerrero opened the scoring in the first inning by belting a 1-0 fastball from Chicago starter Mark Buehrle into the right field seats to reach the 25-homer plateau for the 10th consecutive season.

Juan Rivera, who was activated on September 2 after rehabbing a broken leg suffered playing winter ball, fouled off four straight 2-2 pitches before drilling Buehrle's ninth offering over the fence in left field for a 3-0 edge in the fourth.

Anaheim pushed the edge to 7-1 with four runs in the seventh. Robb Quinlan and Howie Kendrick had RBI singles, another run scored on third baseman Andy Gonzalez's fielding error and Mike Napoli capped the outburst with a bases-loaded walk.

"They came back and beat us," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "You're not going to put a win in the bank until the last out. Something uncharacteristic happened to us. Eight runs out of the bullpen over three innings, that doesn't happen to us very often, but it happened today."

Buehrle was tagged for seven runs and 11 hits in 6 1/3 innings.