TORONTO – Frank Thomas hit his 497th career home run, Roy Halladay won his third consecutive start and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 12-1 on Wednesday night.

Gregg Zaun and Matt Stairs also homered for the Blue Jays, who scored a season-high eight runs in the second inning.

Thomas had the biggest hit, a grand slam that chased Dodgers starter Hong-Chih Kuo (1-2) after just 1 2-3 innings. The grand slam was Thomas’ second of the season and the 10th of his career.

Zaun and Stairs hit back-to-back homers off Brett Tomko to begin the third. It’s the second time this season Toronto has hit back-to-back home runs.

Toronto avenged Tuesday’s 10-1 defeat to Los Angeles, its most lopsided loss of the season, by matching its biggest margin of victory in 2007. The Blue Jays beat Philadelphia 13-2 on May 19.

Halladay (8-2) improved to 4-0 in five starts since returning from the disabled list May 31 following an appendectomy. He has not lost since May 10, when he gave up seven runs in a 8-0 defeat to Boston.

The right-hander allowed one run and six hits over eight innings, walked one and struck out four.

Halladay got Marlon Anderson swinging to end the eighth, recording his 1,000th career strikeout. He’s the fifth Blue Jays pitcher to reach the mark, joining Jim Clancy, Juan Guzman, Pat Hentgen and Dave Stieb.

Andre Ethier’s solo home run in the eighth was the only blemish on Halladay’s line. Ethier finished 3-for-3, adding a pair of singles. The home run was his sixth.

Casey Janssen pitched the ninth for Toronto.

Starting for the fourth time this season, Kuo got the Blue Jays in order in the first but was roughed up in the second, when the first five batters reached safely.

Thomas led off with a double, Aaron Hill singled and Zaun had an RBI-single before Stairs walked and Curtis Thigpen singled home Toronto’s second run.

John McDonald struck out before Alex Rios lined a two-run double down the line in left. Vernon Wells popped out, Troy Glaus walked and Thomas followed with his grand slam, making it 8-0.

Toronto added two more against Tomko in the fifth on an RBI-double from Zaun and a run-scoring grounder by Thigpen.

The Dodgers fell to 3-8 in interleague games this season and have lost 21 of their past 23 games in American League stadiums.

Notes: The last time Toronto hit back-to-back homers was May 1 at Cleveland, when Glaus and Hill went deep. … Thomas hit a grand slam off Tampa Bay’s Casey Fossum on April 7, his first homer of the season. … Home plate umpire Eric Cooper left after six innings because of a pulled muscle. The game was delayed for eight minutes while Chad Fairchild put on protective gear and moved from second base to behind the plate.

AP-ES-06-20-07 2141EDT