It was a historic day Saturday afternoon at Target field in Minnesota, as the Tampa Bay Rays took on the Twins. The Twins’ Jim Thome took possession of the 10th spot on the all-time home runs list and the Rays’ Matt Joyce hit his first career major-league grand slam in front of the largest ever crowd – 40,852 – to attend a game in this ballpark.

Wade Davis, the Rays starting pitcher, found himself on the wrong side of history this Saturday afternoon. With two outs in the second inning, he allowed Twins powerhouse Jim Thome to crack a 1-0 pitch for a home run, tying Harmon Killebrew for 10th on the all-time home runs list with 573. Thome took the next pitch he saw – a fastball – into the Twins’ bullpen to take sole possession of 10th place. It’s always great to witness history – I was on-hand for Evan Longoria’s first career grand slam – but it has to be bittersweet to have these historic moments come at your expense. Davis left a few cookies over the plate and Thome is always going to be a guy who will gladly take them with a glass of milk. At least it was a stand-up guy like Thome; I have great respect for the man as a player. Let’s just say he achieved his greatness the right way, unlike certain others…

The Rays quickly found themselves down 1-0 on Thome’s second-inning home run. They started coming back the Rays way: Gabe Kapler singled to leadoff the bottom of the third; Jason Bartlett’s sacrifice bunt moved him in to second base. Sean Rodriguez then grounded to the shortstop and Kapler advanced to third. Carl Crawford chipped in an infield single and Kapler scored to tie it.

This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2010.