Matsui returns with a milestone

Hideki Matsui's timing was slightly off. He recorded his 500th career home run Thursday in Detroit, one day before returning to Yankee Stadium with the Athletics Friday night.

It would not have approached the emotion of Derek Jeter's 3,000th hit, but Yankees fans surely would have roared their appreciation for Matsui's feat. The homer was his 168th since coming to America. Combined with the 332 he hit in Japan, it made him the eighth player in Japanese history to reach that milestone and the first to combine for 500.

"That would be too good of a tale to be in the story,'' Matsui said through an interpreter of the idea of doing it in New York. "So I never really placed any thoughts on that.

"It's certainly a significant number. Me personally, I don't place much significance to it. But I guess fans, especially the fans in Japan, are probably happy they were able to be a part of that. I'm happy about that."

Matsui, who went 0-for-3 with a walk Friday night in the Yankees' 17-7 victory and is hitting .221 with seven homers and 43 RBIs, expressed his appreciation of Jeter's feat after watching highlights of his former teammate's 5-for-5 day, including a homer for hit No. 3,000. "Knowing him, I'm not surprised he did it here in dramatic fashion in Yankee Stadium,'' he said. "He's got a flair for dramatics.''

When he was a Yankee, so did Matsui, who was named MVP of the 2009 World Series. Matsui had three homers and eight RBIs and batted .615 in leading the Yankees to their 27th championship.

Speaking of the risk he took when he left Japan to join the Yankees, he said: "I think it was a good decision overall to come here for me. I've been fortunate to be able to play all these years and to play with one of the best teams, if not the greatest team in baseball, which is the Yankees.''

SEE PHOTOSThe 500 home run club