"As soon as he swung Sunday, players in the dugout jumped to their feet and clamored to the railing to watch Jim Thome's 596th homer strike seven rows up in the upper deck seats in right field for an impressive 490 feet, the longest bomb hit at Target Field to date.

The three-run blast broke a 1-1 tie, boosted a good performance from starter Brian Duensing and vaulted the Twins over the Royals 4-3.

"It was a close ballgame, it's smoking out there and he gives you a big three-run lead," manager Ron Gardenhire said of the shot that cruised through the humid, 93-degree air. "That was a big at-bat and [Royals starter Felipe Paulino] made one mistake and that's what this guy does, he puts it in the seats."

With two outs Paulino, who had been pitching very well, left a slider over the plate and Thome jumped on it.

"It was ridiculous," Duensing said. I stood up immediately. I knew it was gone when he hit it ... I didn't know it was going to go that far. That's why it's so fun watching him hit -- you just never know when it's going to happen and when he gets them, it's usually in big situations or very large home runs and today was both."

Said Thome of the shot: "Anytime you hit a ball that far, it's always special, that feeling you kind of want to last forever.""