Lane Thomas ensured the Cleveland Guardians will stay in the running for MLB championship, with a 7-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers in Game 5 of the American League Division Series on Saturday. He turned on the first pitch from Skubal and sent it over the 19-foot wall in left-center field, ushering in the sixth postseason grand slam in Cleveland history.
For the first time since 2016, the Guardians will return to the American League Championship Series. They left for New York on Saturday to get ready for a clash against the Yankees which will start Monday at the Yankee Stadium.
“You dream of at-bats like that as a little kid,” Thomas said, “and to do it at this stage, in this game and to come through for the guys in the clubhouse, it feels awesome.”
Cleveland wanted their star to feel the love as he concluded third base. This was not just the seventh grand slam in a “winner-take-all postseason” match in league history. This was when the Guardians knew they were going to the ALCS. And it was thanks to the offensive player they drafted at the Trade Deadline.
“After a game like that, you’re fired up,” Thomas said. “You’re ready to run through a wall.”
Thomas deserved this moment. It wasn’t always apparent that this was the player he would become with the Guardians. In his first 29 matches at Cleveland, he hit .177 with a .484 OPS. In his 30th match, he hit a home run at Kansas City that may have been the first indicator of a change in his batting. But when Thomas came in the next morning, he didn’t make the starting lineup. He asked Stephen Vogt why.
“I just said, ‘Lane, look, here’s what we’ve got. We’ve got guys that can hit righties,’” Vogt recounted. “ We had a really good conversation and I challenged him. … And then he steps up, and I can’t take him out of the lineup. And that’s what big-time players do. They step up and they get it done.”
Immediately after the conversation with Vogt, Thomas got an eight-game hitting streak. He brought more firepower that sent his team into the playoffs. Lane hit a huge blast in Game I against Detroit that secured the Guardians a victory. He was the star of the show in Game 5 when the offense could not reach Skubal.
It was not until Thomas stepped up the plate, seeking a fastball, and hit a grand slam that the offense came alive.
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