ATLANTA — Over the past month, the Washington Nationals lacked that one hitter who could alter a matchup with one swing. They were without that player whom opponents are forced to game-plan around. In short, they were missing Lane Thomas.
The fans at Truist Park groaned, and Thomas watched the ball crash into the left field seats above the visiting bullpen as his teammates leaned over the dugout railing to celebrate. His three-run homer was exactly what the Nationals had been missing, and it powered them to a 7-2 victory. Jacob Young added a two-run single in the sixth to pad the lead for MacKenzie Gore, who struck out 10.
“I just think it takes an inning like that to get something going,” Thomas said. “We got some big hits when we needed them.”
Thomas, who struggled to start the season and then missed a month with a left medial collateral ligament sprain, did just about everything Wednesday night. He finished 3 for 4. He scored twice, walked once and stole two bases. Since returning to the roster Monday, he is 5 for 13 with four extra-base hits.
“When he got hurt, we [knew] were going to miss him a little bit,” Manager Dave Martinez said. “To have him back and have him playing, not just his hitting but his overall play, the way he plays defense, you see him running the bases — he plays the game the right way.”
Thomas, 28, led the Nationals with 28 home runs a season ago, providing a steady presence at the top of the lineup. His performance in the first half was so strong that he was a candidate for his first trip to the All-Star Game. And though there was talk of the Nationals moving Thomas at the trade deadline, General Manager Mike Rizzo said in August that it would have taken a hefty return.
All of that made Thomas’s absence apparent, especially for a team that lacks power; Washington (25-29) had 19 home runs this month before Thomas’s blast Wednesday. Still, he was hitting .184 with a .503 OPS when he slid awkwardly April 23 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, came up limping and was placed on the injured list.
But Thomas gives Martinez another right-handed hitter at the top of a lineup that features lots of lefties. And he provides some protection for leadoff hitter CJ Abrams, who has cooled off after a breakout April. Most importantly, his power gives the Nationals instant offense.
Until Thomas’s homer, the Nationals looked lethargic against Braves right-hander Spencer Schwellenbach, who was making his major league debut. Martinez said before the game that his team needed to avoid swinging at pitches outside of the strike zone. It didn’t achieve that early on. Schwellenbach fell behind at times, but Washington bailed him out by swinging at borderline pitches early in counts.
To open the second inning, Luis García Jr. hit a single that bounced off right fielder Adam Duvall’s glove, allowing him to advance to third. But García never scored. The next four Washington hitters went flyout, groundout, walk, strikeout.
In the third, Abrams booted a groundball off the bat of Austin Riley that should have been an inning-ending double play. Instead, Marcell Ozuna’s RBI single pushed the Braves (31-22) ahead.
One night earlier, the Nationals squandered a strong start by Jake Irvin in a 2-0 loss. It seemed they might do the same with Gore on the mound until Thomas’s homer changed everything. Gore lasted 5⅓ innings and was charged with two runs (one earned).
“The homer was huge,” Gore said. “We didn’t score early, but the guys were competing. We were putting ourselves in situations, and we finally broke through. … And then we just kept adding on toward the end of the game.”
Gore primarily attacked with his fastball, which the Braves fouled off 17 times. But he seemed to use his secondary pitches at just the right time. Of his 10 strikeouts, he got three on his fastball, three on his slider and two each on his curveball and change-up. (Gore and Irvin struck out 10 in back-to-back games, the Nationals’ first time achieving that feat since 2019.) Perhaps most importantly, Gore didn’t walk anyone.
Thomas provided some extra support in the ninth, when he singled, then stole two bases. Three batters later, Keibert Ruiz’s single scored Thomas and Jesse Winker to put the Braves away.
“You see what he does every day — it’s huge for us to have a bat like that,” Young said of Thomas. “It’s good to have someone like that back in the clubhouse and back leading us out there.”
Note: Third baseman Nick Senzel exited in the second inning after fouling the ball off his right kneecap. He eventually worked a walk, but his knee buckled when he planted at first base, forcing him out of the game. Afterward, Martinez said all tests came back negative; he was hopeful Senzel could play in the series finale Thursday night.
