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Thome hits 499th homer as White Sox edge streaking Indians

Sep 13, 2007 - 2:45 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Jim Thome handed the Cleveland Indians a rare loss. In the process, he moved closer to an impressive milestone.

Thome blasted his 499th career homer and Javier Vazquez pitched into the seventh inning as the Chicago White Sox snapped a three-game losing streak Wednesday with a 7-4 victory over the red-hot Indians.

Juan Uribe and Paul Konerko also homered for Chicago, which salvaged the finale of this three-game series to secure just its seventh win in 18 contests against Cleveland this season. The White Sox have lost five of the six series against the Indians.

The White Sox also gave manager Ozzie Guillen his first victory since signing a multi-year contract extension through 2012 on Tuesday.

With the loss, Cleveland (85-61) fell to 5 1/2 games ahead of the Detroit Tigers (80-67) for first place in the American League Central Division.

It has been a scorching second half for the Indians, who are 20-7 since August 15 and have won 14 of their last 20 road games.

"It was a tough road trip in tough cities," Cleveland manager Eric Wedge said. "Even today (the players) took it all the way to the end. They played hard."

But on Wednesday, the Indians could not deal with the 37-year-old Thome, who blasted his 27th homer of the season - leaving him one short of the exclusive 500-homer club. His shot off Cleveland starter Jake Westbrook (5-9) snapped a 1-1 tie in the fourth inning.

"Well, the fans are getting into it, you can feel the excitement in the dugout. The guys are getting excited, it's just a matter of going out and try not to think about it, but it's really tough," Thome said. "I was trying to get a pitch to drive. There's a lot of emotion, and that's what makes this tough to do. Trying to control the emotions and being ready to hit."

Thome added a two-run single in the fifth to make it 4-1. Konerko followed with a run-scoring hit of his own to give the White Sox a four-run cushion and cap the scoring in the frame.

Vazquez (12-8) allowed two runs and six hits in 6 1/3 innings while striking out nine and walking one. The righthander threw 116 pitches to snap a three-game personal losing streak.

"My first two innings I threw a lot of pitches and fell behind in the count a lot, after that I think I was more aggressive with hitting the strike zone a little better and things worked out for me after that," Vazquez said.

Boone Logan got the final two outs in the seventh and the first out of the eighth. Ehren Wassermann closed out the eighth to set up Bobby Jenks, who worked the ninth in a non-save situation.

Cleveland's Josh Barfield opened the scoring with an RBI single in the second, but Uribe evened the score with his solo blast in the bottom of the frame.

"He's swinging the bat pretty good. I think he doesn't know how good he is. He can go out there and do some damage," Guillen said. "Your not going to see guys hit 20 home runs the last three or four years as a shortstop."

Casey Blake cut Cleveland's deficit to 5-2 with an RBI double in the seventh. Konerko then blasted a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning to give the White Sox a five-run advantage.

Victor Martinez and Grady Sizemore added RBI singles to provide the final margin.

Westbrook allowed five runs and seven hits in six innings while striking out five and walking one for the Indians.