Wednesday evening, Oakland Athletics DH Hideki Matsui joined an exclusive club as he hit his 500th career home run between Japan and the United States. Matsui hit number 500 off the right field foul pole in the A's 7-5 victory over the Detroit Tigers. His home run, hit on a 1-0 pitch leading off the sixth inning gave the A's a 3-2 lead they would relinquish in the bottom of the sixth and recapture in the top of the seventh. You can view video of Matsui's home run at athletics.mlb.com. We've also got some YouTube embedded after the jump for now so we'll see how long that remains available for viewing.
The home run was number 168 since Godzilla came to Major League Baseball. This followed 332 home runs in Japan while playing for the Yomiuri Giants. While with the Japanese Giants he averaged just under 39 home runs per season. His numbers declined in MLB but he has still put together five seasons of 20+ home runs. This season he's on pace for 11 or 12, but it's possible getting number 500 out of the way will allow him to refocus.
Hideki Matsui's 500th career home run