July 23, 2023: Lane Thomas does everything as Nationals complete sweep of Giants

As the calendar moves through July, the major-league trading deadline looms. Baseball’s seismometer is ready to measure every movement as the race for one of the 12 playoff spots takes on an increasing urgency. A team’s drive to earn a playoff spot and make a run to the World Series strongly influences the trading market at this time of the year. They are the buyers.

For other teams, it is becoming increasingly clear that their season’s expectations will go unfulfilled. Some are already in the midst of roster rebuilds aimed at returning to the playoffs and respectability. Perhaps their rosters are dotted with players anticipating free agency at season’s end, and the opportunity to reduce payroll in return for more prospects cannot be missed. They are the sellers.

Take the flurry of activity at the 2021 trading deadline, just two seasons after the Washington Nationals won the World Series. Shock waves hit Nationals fans when stars Max Scherzer and Trea Turner were traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Those same fans will always remember Daniel Hudson striking out Michael Brantley of the Houston Astros for the final out of the 2019 World Series and flinging his glove.1 Hudson was shipped to the San Diego Padres. Even Kyle Schwarber, whose slugging kept the Nationals in the NL East Division race through June, was on his way to the Boston Red Sox one month later.2

There was little fanfare and barely a notice when 37-year-old lefty Jon Lester, nearing the end of his career, was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals after a lackluster half-season with the Nationals, a 3-5 record and a 5.02 ERA.3 In return, the Nationals received 25-year-old Lane Thomas, with barely 100 at-bats and a .172 batting average in parts of three major-league seasons.

If there was shock as the Nationals began their rebuild in 2021, the aftershock struck one year later when Juan Soto, along with Josh Bell, was traded to the Padres at the 2022 deadline. That blockbuster deal enabled Thomas, who had been playing left and center, to settle in as the regular right fielder, a position that was his almost exclusively in 2023.

By the time the San Francisco Giants came to town in late July 2023, Thomas was in the midst of a breakout season as the Nationals’ leading hitter – .290 batting average, 24 doubles, 15 home runs, and 51 runs batted in. And he was well on his way to becoming a top right fielder in the majors.4

As for the Giants, they were only two games behind the NL West-leading Dodgers. In the series opener, homers by Thomas (16) and CJ Abrams (9) and solid late-inning relief gave the Nationals the 5-3 victory. Two early-inning bursts, six runs in the second and four in the fourth, combined with starter Josiah Gray’s four-hit pitching over seven innings, led the Nationals to a 10-1 rout in the second game of the series. Could the Nationals sweep in the series closer on Sunday afternoon?

The starting pitchers were a pair of lefties, MacKenzie Gore (5-7, 4.59 ERA) for the Nationals and Scott Alexander (6-0, 3.04 ERA) for the Giants. Gore, like Abrams, was part of the haul the Nationals received when they traded Soto to the Padres.5 Giants manager Gabe Kapler frequently deployed “bullpen games” to manage his pitching staff. Opener Alexander was making only his second start of the season after 30 relief appearances.6

Alexander’s day didn’t last very long, even by bullpen-game standards. In the first inning, Thomas singled to left with one out and stole second. After Joey Meneses’ two-out infield single advanced Thomas to third, Kapler replaced Alexander with Anthony DeSclafani, who walked Stone Garrett to load the bases. When Dominic Smith singled to right, scoring Thomas and Meneses, the Nationals had the early 2-0 lead.

The Nationals added another run in the third, and Thomas started it again with a leadoff single to center. With one out, he stole second. With two outs, he stole third. Garrett’s double to center scored Thomas for a 3-0 Nationals lead.

Meanwhile, four strikeouts helped Gore keep the Giants off the board despite yielding a single, double, and two walks over the first three innings. But Gore got in a big jam in the fourth inning. Patrick Bailey and Luis Matos opened with singles. Gore struck out Mike Yastrzemski and David Villar before Casey Schmitt hit a hanging slider to right. Thomas came to the rescue with a sliding catch off the grass to end the inning.

There would be more to come from Thomas in the field, but first it was time for him to help the Nationals pad their lead.Riley Adams and Luis García opened the fourth with singles. With one out and Adams on third, Abrams’ sent him home with a sacrifice fly to right. Thomas’s double to left scored García, making it 5-0.

Thomas proceeded to steal third with Jeimer Candelario at bat – four stolen bases in four innings! The four steals in a game tied a club record held by Trea Turner and Michael A. Taylor.7

Gore finished his day’s work of 90 pitches with two strikeouts in the fifth inning, eight for the game, before Adams hit his fourth homer of the season for the last Nationals run. Gore now had 101 innings to his credit in 2023, exceeding the 87 innings pitched in his 2022 minor-league and major-league seasons. Gore was a key young asset for the Nationals’ future and they were closely monitoring his workload.

The Nationals bullpen needed to cover four innings in relief to preserve a win and a series sweep. They did. Jordan Weems, Amos Willingham, Mason Thompson, and Joe LaSorsa pitched two-hit ball over the final four and only Joc Pederson’s solo homer off Willingham in the seventh marred the effort.

Thomas’s fielding also helped preserve the win and the sweep. With two outs in the sixth and J.D. Davis on second, Yastrzemski hit a popup to short right. When second baseman García and center fielder Alex Call were about to converge, Thomas swooped in and made a running catch.8

In the eighth inning, Wilmer Flores singled to left off Thompson. With one out, Bailey’s fly ball was destined for the right-field wall before Thomas made a leaping catch, maintained his balance, and fired a two-hopper to first baseman Dominic Smith for an inning-ending double play. Plays like that made Thomas a finalist for the 2023 National League Gold Glove in right field, won by San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. What did Nationals manager Dave Martinez think about Thomas’s play – batting, running, and fielding? “He’s going to be exhausted tonight, I’ll tell you that.”9

Nationals fans had to turn the clock back to June 2021 for the last three-game sweep by the Nats, that one against the Pittsburgh Pirates. This sweep wasn’t surprising since the Giants batted a dismal 0-for-17 for the series with runners in scoring position; the Nationals hit 14-for-32 for the same circumstance.10

As the trading deadline passed one week later (August 1), the Giants were still in contention for a playoff spot, only 2½ games behind the first-place Dodgers. They were not buyers of any consequence and never got any closer in the standings, losing out on a wild-card spot. Meanwhile the Nationals were in a perfect position to sell. They traded Candelario and cash to the Cubs for two minor-league prospects, DJ Herz and Kevin Made. The bigger news was who they kept – Thomas and closer Kyle Finnegan.11

The season ended and Hot Stove League speculation warmed after Thanksgiving. With the Nationals’ top minor-league prospects, Dylan Crews and James Wood, in the wings, was Thomas an appealing candidate to be traded? After all, he still retained two years of arbitration after a breakout season, 28 home runs, and a .783 OPS. Mark Feinsand, executive reporter for MLB.com, thought so.12 The major-league Winter Meetings in Nashville came and went in early December and there were no trades by the Nationals.

As the calendar turned to 2024, trade speculation surrounding Thomas cooled and the thoughts of all baseball fans turned to the mid-February start of spring training. Let the games begin.13

Author’s note

Why keep score during a ballgame? An appreciation of the game is in the details of what is happening on the field of play. Recording the action in a scorebook was challenged in 2023 with the new rules increasing the pace of play and reducing the dead time. What might one notice about the scorebook in the photo? There are no mustard stains! Tom Wins (21)? In the middle of the fourth inning, the Racing Presidents have their turn. On this day, Thomas Jefferson wins for the 21st time in the 2023 season.

Acknowledgments

This essay was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

The author accessed Baseball-Reference.com for box scores/play-by-play information (baseball-reference.com/boxes/WAS/WAS202307230.shtml), and other data, as well as Retrosheet.org(retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2023/B07230WAS2023.htm). The 2023 Topps baseball card for Lane Thomas (#WSH-15) is from the author’s collection, as is his own copy of Bob Carpenter’s Baseball Scorebook.

Notes

1 Steven C. Weiner, “October 30, 2019: Clutch pitching, late hitting lead Washington Nationals to World Series title,” SABR Baseball Games Project.

2 Steven C. Weiner, “June 28, 2021: Five homers, two by Kyle Schwarber, power Nationals over Mets,” SABR Baseball Games Project.

3 Jon Lester’s story is told by Laura H. Peebles, “September 20, 2021: Jon Lester earns 200th and final career win,” SABR Baseball Games Project. 

4 Lane Thomas led major-league right fielders in 2023 with 16 assists and 319 putouts.

5 On August 2, 2022, the Nationals traded Soto and Bell to the Padres for Robert Hassell, Jarlin Susana, James Wood, Luke Voit, Abrams, and Gore.

6 Maria Guardado, “How Giants Are Managing Bullpen Workloads,” MLB.com, June 24, 2023, mlb.com/news/giants-are-being-strategic-with-bullpen-management. The term “opener” is often used to refer to the first game of a doubleheader or a series against a particular opponent. Now the term also designates a relief pitcher who starts a bullpen game, one that begins without the more traditional starting pitcher.

7 Jesse Dougherty, “Thomas Does It All as Nats Nab Rare Sweep,” Washington Post, July 24, 2023: D1. The feat also tied the franchise record. The Montreal Expos’ Tim Raines stole four bases in a game five times! The other Expos to steal four bases in a game were Marquis Grissom, Ron LeFlore, and Rodney Scott.

8 Dougherty.

9 Dougherty.

10 Dougherty.

11 Jesse Dougherty, “Thomas and Finnegan Stick Around as the Nationals Stand Pat on Deadline Day,” Washington Post, August 2, 2023: D5.

12 Mark Feinsand, “One potential trade candidate from each team,” MLB.com, November 26, 2023, mlb.com/news/trade-candidate-for-each-mlb-team-2023.

13 In ancient Greece, the sacrifices to the gods were completed and this order to start the Olympic Games was given by the emperor.