By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
The first time Lane Thomas was traded, back in 2017, there wasn’t even another name attached in the deal.
The Toronto Blue Jay sent him from his Class-A team to the St. Louis Cardinals organization in exchange for international spending cap space. Apparently that’s a thing.
Last week, when he experienced the second trade of his career, there was a player of significant stature headed the other way.
The Cardinals, in a deadline-beating deal meant to bolster their playoff chances, traded Thomas to the Washington Nationals for pitcher Jon Lester. Now it’s up to Thomas to prove he has Major League potential.
So far he has made a very solid first impression with the Rochester Red Wings. Through three games with his new team, he is 5-for-13 with two runs and three RBI, including the walk-off single on Thursday night.
Thomas laced a Tom Windle pitch just inside the first-base bag and down the line, driving home Jecksson Flores from second to give the Wings a 2-1 victory over the Syracuse Mets.
“It’s always good when you don’t have to play free baseball and you can save arms in the bullpen,” the 25-year-old outfielder said.
The five arms the Wings (32-44) did use on Thursday were very good, especially starter Sean Nolin. He pitched six shutout innings, allowing four hits. He struck out four and didn’t walk a batter.
“Nolin really pitched well,” manager Matthew LeCroy said. “He had a little traffic in a couple innings and he was able to make pitches to end threats. Then I thought the bullpen did a nice job keeping us in it.”
The lone Syracuse run came in the eighth when Mason Williams, a highly touted prospect for the New York Yankees when he turned pro a decade ago, belted a one-out home run to center off Tanner Rainey.
Aaron Barrett pitched a 1-2-3 ninth and then Thomas played walk-off hero.
With two outs, Windle, the fourth Mets pitcher, walked Flores, surrendered a pinch-hit single to Jake Noll and then Thomas delivered his hit on a 0-1 pitch.
“He gives you a solid A-B pretty much every at-bat, he gives himself a chance, he gets himself in a good position to hit on a consistent basis,” LeCroy said. “He’s a really good centerfielder and now he’s starting to get the bat going.”
Trades can be unsettling. Or they can be a new lease on a career. For Thomas, it’s the latter.
“Any time you get traded for a big leaguer like Jon Lester, you have to feel a little excited about coming to a different organization where you may have a chance to impact our big league club at some point,” LeCroy said.
“I know he’s excited, he’s talked to me about a new start, a new organization and wanting to make an impact and he’s done that so far. He’s put himself in a good situation with us and hopefully will get a chance to go up and show what he can do.”
NOTES: The Wings now have two walk-off wins, both when they played as the Plates. … Noll’s hit as a pinch-hitter was a rarity for the Wings this season. Their pinch-hitters were just 3-for-52 coming into the at-bat. … Daniel Palka drove home the Wings first run, using what essentially was a one-handed swing on an off-speed pitch that beat the shift and drove home Thomas from third with two outs in the sixth.
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