Lane Thomas does it all as Nationals beat Giants for a rare sweep
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By the end of the fourth inning Sunday, only 75 minutes after first pitch, a 6-1 win for the Washington Nationals was also a Lane Thomas highlight reel. Thomas had two singles and an RBI double, plus a career-high four stolen bases, plus a sliding catch in right field that came with a strong read and helped MacKenzie Gore strand two in scoring position. Thomas added another running catch to end the sixth, then made a leaping grab at the wall in the eighth before two-hopping a throw to first base for a double play.
All weekend, the Nationals took it to the San Francisco Giants, earning their first three-game sweep since June 2021 and their first sweep of any kind since August 2021. And though Thomas was the loud exclamation point in the finale, he didn’t act alone.
“We hit. We scored some runs. We played good defense. We ran the bases well,” Manager Dave Martinez said. “This weekend, we played like I thought we’d play throughout, with a lot of energy. It was a lot of fun. . . . You saw us go first to third. You saw us turn double plays when we needed to, made some good plays, stole some bases, got big outs. I mean, everybody was on point.”
Gore, Washington’s left-handed starter, struck out eight in five scoreless innings. Dominic Smith punched a two-run single in the first, then ended the top of the fifth with a running catch at the railing. Stone Garrett walked to extend the first to Smith and doubled home Thomas in the third. Riley Adams, spelling Keibert Ruiz behind the plate, singled and scored in the fourth and skied a moonshot solo homer in the fifth. Luis García, recently dropped in the batting order amid a slump, chipped in a pair of singles. Jordan Weems, Amos Willingham, Mason Thompson and Joe La Sorsa handled the last four innings, with Willingham allowing San Francisco’s lone run.
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The Giants (54-46), a club in the National League wild-card mix, were 0 for 17 with men in scoring position in the series. Washington (41-58) went 14 for 32.
The key inning Sunday was the fourth, when Gore yielded back-to-back singles with no outs, the latter followed by an ill-advised throw from center fielder Alex Call that put runners on second and third. Gore struck out the next two batters — using a fastball and a slider — before Casey Schmitt stepped in. In a 1-1 count, Schmitt smacked a hanging slider in Thomas’s direction. The ball looked bound for grass.
But Thomas twitched into motion, got behind the liner and made a sliding catch. Two innings later, he, García and Call converged for a popup in shallow right, leaving Thomas to zoom past the pack with the ball secure in his glove. His sprint speed, ranked in the 94th percentile by Statcast, was on full display. That was a theme of the game.
“It was a lot of fun,” Martinez said. “He’s going to be exhausted tonight, I’ll tell you that.”
After Thomas singled in the first, he stole second against left-handed reliever Scott Alexander, who started as an opener and recorded just two outs. After Thomas singled again to lead off the third, he swiped second and third against righty Anthony DeSclafani. And after Thomas doubled in the fourth, he took third off DeSclafani again, tying a club record shared by Trea Turner and Michael A. Taylor.
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Thomas entered with just eight steals on the season, a low number given his speed. But whenever Martinez is asked about the Nationals’ lack of aggression on the base paths, the manager says it’s harder to attempt steals when your team is trailing. It made sense, then, that Thomas kept running to extend a lead, not chase one. Before Sunday, he had never logged more than one steal in a major league game.
“I just do what they tell me to,” said Thomas, who picked on an above-average catcher in rookie Patrick Bailey. “He gave me the steal sign; I ran. Luckily I was safe.”
Is that how it works?
“That’s how it works,” he answered with a laugh. “That’s why they give signs. That’s exactly right.”
But aren’t some guys on their own when choosing to steal?
“Yeah, sometimes,” Thomas said even more coyly. “But I wasn’t today.”
For 27 innings, the Nationals took it to the Giants and made the case for optimism. Gore, Josiah Gray and rookie Jake Irvin pitched 18⅔ innings and yielded just four earned runs. On Saturday, the club welcomed outfielder Dylan Crews, the second pick in the draft, and handed out CJ Abrams bobbleheads. Abrams, the Nationals’ 22-year-old shortstop, homered in the first two games and added a sacrifice fly Sunday. He has been scalding for most of July. He’s starting to look the part.
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Now Washington will decide whether Thomas will stick around with these players — for the next phase of the rebuild — or get flipped in its latest trade deadline sell-off. With three more hits, his OPS inched to .835. His 12 steals look good next to a team-high 16 homers.
Earlier in the week, General Manager Mike Rizzo was pretty direct in how he perceives Thomas as a trade chip. If a team views Thomas as Rizzo does — as an everyday, all star-caliber player — he would have a conversation about a trade. He won’t listen to offers that value Thomas as a part-timer who would face lefties and pinch-run late in games.
Rizzo’s version of Thomas flew around Nationals Park against the Giants, shining in every possible way. It will be clear soon whether any clubs took note.
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Source: The Washington Post
