In a season like the White Sox have had in 2007, players start to look for any bright spots that they can. With the team well out of the playoff hunt, the South Siders have been fortunate to get a number of strong individual performances to keep things interesting at U.S. Cellular Field.

Jim Thome continued his march toward history on Tuesday night in Chicago, blasting his 493rd career home run to help the White Sox to a 5-2 victory over the Royals.

In a season where there has been little to cheer about, Thome's stretch of three home runs in his last four games has given his teammates something to rally around.

"The way this year has gone, it has been rough," said Paul Konerko, who hit a home run of his own in the victory. "That is definitely one of the highlights that we are looking forward to, not to put a whole bunch of pressure on him. But with Jim, as everybody knows, there are a lot of guys that have reached 500 home runs and their teammates haven't cared about it as much as we're going to care about Jim doing it."

Thome's two-run blast came off Royals starter Leo Nunez, who became the 330th different pitcher to surrender a long ball to the White Sox designated hitter. It was Thome's 21st of the season, tying the veteran slugger for 23rd with Fred McGriff and Lou Gehrig on the all-time list.

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