"The day after entering the 600 home run club, Twins slugger Jim Thome rested. At the end of a whirlwind day on the local and national talk show circuit, he was kept out of the starting lineup Tuesday by manager Ron Gardenhire.

"It's cool," Thome said. "It definitely was a long day, but it was well worth it. For the experience, the moment, to do it was very special."

Thome did pinch hit in the ninth inning, striking out to end a 7-1 loss to the Tigers. It was the latest defeat for a disappointing, underachieving Twins team that's outside of the postseason race.

As much as Thome doesn't want to address it, the possibility that he could end up in a pennant race -- with another team -- exists. With the Aug. 31 trade deadline approaching, a team looking for some lefthanded punch could be interested in acquiring Thome for the stretch drive.

And Thome wants to win. He lost World Series while with Cleveland in 1995 and '97. So the pull to join a contender is there.

"I think it's every player's dream to win, and I don't know, to be honest," he said when asked whether he would consider joining a contender for the rest of the season. "That's something, until that happens, is hard for me to comment on that out of respect, out of respect to this."

Thome then patted the Twins pullover he was wearing.

"We're sitting here a day after a special night," he said. "To answer that now, I don't know.""