Indians slugger Jim Thome hit his first home run of the season Wednesday and it was a big one - a grand slam against the Minnesota Twins. (Mark Duncan/AP)

CLEVELAND -- Jim Thome is one of the boys of summer. Make no mistake about it. So if he struggles at the plate in the chill of March and April, he has a reason: It ain't summer yet.

And Thome has struggled this spring, just as he did last spring. His batting average has leaned more toward .100 than it has toward .200, and he hadn't hit a home run in what looked like a century. Thome had been taking his big swings, but he wasn't doing much with the ball when he did hit it.

That was a description of Thome's play this spring. Or it was until Wednesday night.

Whatever had been Thome's problems at the plate, they evaporated at The Jake.

In the first inning, he doubled home a run, and then his homer in the second knocked in four more runs, helping the Tribe to a 9-3 win in front of 25,420 fans.

Jim Thome  /  1B
	Height: 6'4" Weight: 240 Bats/Throws: L/R More info: Player page Stats Splits Hit chart Phillies site

This homer had been a long time coming, a point Thome wouldn't dispute. For his last one came Sept. 26, and he'd gone homerless in the playoffs last season, too.

"It's nice to get the first one out of the way -- and to put your team up," Thome said.

Not that anybody with the Indians was overly concerned, because people looked at Thome's power shortage as simply another slow start for a slugger who is notorious for slow starts. This one was no worse than the one he had last season, and he came out of that slump pounding Major League pitchers like a punching bag.

The victim of Thome's grand slam was veteran Rick Reed. He seemed unable to solve Thome, who earlier had a RBI double off the Twins right-hander.

But that double was harmless compared to the damage Thome's homer did. It broke up a ballgame that, at the time, might have gone either team's way.

"He finally got some hits," manager Charlie Manuel said.

Even with those early hits, Thome had an uneven performance. He could have had a career day if he'd done more with two other opportunities to knock in runs. Thome left the bases load in one inning, and he left two men on in another inning.

"He had a chance to really have a big night," Manuel said. "But he knocked in five runs. We'll take that."

By then, the game's outcome had been decided. Anything more and he would have just been padding his statistics.

Considering what those stats had looked like lately, he might not have found such a thing unappealing.

"The thing is right now I'm trying to concentrate on having good, quality at-bats," said Thome, who struck out three times in the game. "Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't.

"I just have to keep it goin'."

Justice B. Hill, a senior writer, covers the Indians for MLB.com. He can be reached at jbernardh@aol.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.