When it came to Lane Thomas, Washington Nationals General Manager Mike Rizzo was adamant. He would not trade him for just anybody, would not tolerate any suitors who treated him like a bench player best used against lefties. He always saw Thomas as an everyday player, a multitool player — a potentially key piece of a Nationals future that did not yield October baseball soon enough for him to impact it.
The Cleveland Guardians agreed. In July before the trade deadline, they outbid fellow contenders, including the Baltimore Orioles, with a three-player package that raised a few questions for its scale. But on Saturday, in a winner-take-all Game 5 of the American League Division Series against the Detroit Tigers at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Thomas looked every bit the game changer the Nationals knew he could be, delivering the biggest blow in a 7-3 win that sends the Guardians to the AL Championship Series against the New York Yankees beginning Monday.
“The guy’s a pro in and out. I just have to imagine it’s so hard when you have your routines and you have an area that you know and people that you know and then just getting plunged into our world,” Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan said. “He’s been awesome.”
Thomas did something the rest of the AL could not do at any point in the past two months: He thumped the upstart Tigers so hard they could not recover. His fifth-inning grand slam against untouchable left-hander Tarik Skubal was as emotionally decisive as it was mathematically important. Skubal had not erred all month, and the Tigers had not had reason to doubt him or themselves. Suddenly, Thomas got to him, as if the magic had worn off.
