• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Thomas explodes in Jays' blowout win over Dodgers

Jun 21, 2007 - 3:52 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- Frank Thomas' first season with the Toronto Blue Jays has been a disappointment. However, opinions could be changing very quickly.

Thomas hit a grand slam to cap off an eight-run second inning and Roy Halladay tossed eight strong innings as the Blue Jays cruised past the Los Angeles Dodgers, 12-1, on Wednesday.

Signed to a two-year deal worth $18 million in the offseason to fortify Toronto's offense, Thomas has followed a 39-homer, 117 RBI campaign with a largely unremarkable nine-homer, 25 RBI this season. The slugger has started to turn it around over the last four games, hitting .357 (5-for-14) with two home runs and seven RBI.

"I'm not going to be the one to get down on myself," Thomas said. "I've done so much in this game over the years. When it's going bad you feel bad about it, but I've still got a lot of games to make some good things happen and that's my goal."

"He's been swinging the bat really good lately," Toronto manager John Gibbons said. "He's on the verge (of breaking out). He's a big part of this team and we need him to get this thing rolling."

The Blue Jays' designated hitter wasted little time putting this contest away as he doubled to lead off the second against Dodgers starter Hong Chih-Kuo (1-2), and then accounted for the final four runs in the frame when he took Kuo's 85 mile-per-hour slider into the second deck in left for his first grand slam since April 7 and the 10th of his distinguished career. The blast was his 497th career home run.

"It felt great," Thomas said. "I was up there taking some good hacks and really slowing everything down and getting my head on the baseball."

Halladay (8-2), who is no stranger to getting offensive support against the Dodgers this season, had very few issues handcuffing the Los Angeles batters, permitting one run and six hits with four strikeouts. After seeing his offense post 10 runs for him in a win over Los Angeles 10 days ago over seven frames, the righthander was granted 12 more runs Wednesday.

"I've been fortunate to get a lot of (offense) lately," Halladay said. "It sure makes it nice - getting that many runs early. You can be aggressive and it takes a lot of pressure off."

Halladay recorded his 1,000th career strikeout in the top of the eighth when he struck out Marlon Anderson swinging.

"I think I've got about 30 more years until I tie Nolan Ryan," said Halladay, who became the fifth pitcher in Blue Jay history to accomplish the feat. "It's a nice number, but I don't consider myself a strikeout-type guy."

Gregg Zaun and Matt Stairs hit back-to-back homers in the third for Blue Jays - the first time Toronto hit consecutive home runs since Troy Glaus and Aaron Hill turned the trick on May 1 versus Cleveland.

"It was a fastball away," Stairs said. "It was all set by Frank's grand slam and guys getting timely hitting. It's just nice to come back after getting blown out last night."

Zaun, who entered the game with batting .179 with a homer and five runs scored, went 3-for-3 and crossed the plate three times, finishing a triple short of the cycle.

"It's easy to hit when you've got (Halladay) out there and you know he's in complete control," Zaun said. "I tried to be a little bit more aggressive tonight. It was nice to get us on the board early."

Kuo lasted just 1 2/3 innings, surrendering eight runs and six hits with two walks. The lefthander's outing was similar to the fate of Toronto's starter Dustin McGowan in Los Angeles' 10-1 victory on Tuesday. McGowan also recorded just five outs.

"They hit me pretty good," Kuo said. "It was just a bad day for me."

Los Angeles manager Grady Little agreed.

"He had a rough night," Little said. "That was a bad one out there. The grand slam by Frank (Thomas) just kind of put them over the top."

Andre Ethier went 3-for-3 with a homer for the Dodgers, who dropped to 2-21 in their last 23 interleague road games.

"I was just looking for something in the zone to hit," Ethier said. "(Halladay) mixes the ball up well and throws it all over the place. We gave him a big lead and he knew what to do with it."