CLEVELAND — Lane Thomas just wanted to know if José Ramírez was OK.
"First, I was hoping our best player wasn't hurt after getting hit," Thomas recalled.
The Guardians' star third baseman had just taken a 100 mph fastball off the arm from Tigers ace Tarik Skubal, recoiling in pain as the sellout crowd at Progressive Field stood in silence. Thomas joined then in hoping for the best before Ramírez trotted to first, forcing home the tying run for Cleveland in the fifth inning.
That's when Thomas stepped to the plate with the bases still loaded. He was looking for another fastball.
"He's got 100 in the tank and 95 on the sinker," Thomas said of Skubal. "He threw a good one that I could hit."
That "good one" came on the first pitch of the at-bat, a 97 mph sinker right out over the plate. Thomas licked his chops and swung, hitting it just over the 19-foot-high wall in left for a grand slam home run that gave the Guards a 5-1 lead en route to a 7-3 victory in Game 5 of the American League Division Series against Detroit.
It was a moment that seemed unfathomable against a pitcher who hadn't allowed a team to score in more than three weeks. For Thomas, it was surreal.
"You dream of at-bats like that as a little kid," he told reporters after the win, "and to do it at this stage, in this game, and to come through for the guys in the clubhouse, it feels awesome."
Thomas later drove in another run in the seventh, giving him nine RBIs in a series that also saw him belt a first-pitch, three-run homer in the first inning of Game 1. The 29-year-old's postseason debut couldn't have gone any better, although things weren't always this rosy.
After being acquired from the Washington Nationals at the July trade deadline, Thomas went into a deep slump, batting .148 over his first 28 games with Cleveland. His playing time began to dwindle, and during a crucial September road trip in Kansas City, he decided to have a chat with manager Stephen Vogt about it.
"He goes, 'Hey, I thought I'd be in the lineup today.' And I just said, 'Lane, look, here's what we've got. We've got guys that can hit righties,'" Vogt said in reference to the Sept. 3 matchup against the Royals, which came a day after Thomas had actually hit a home run. "We had a really good conversation and I challenged him, and to Lane's credit, he asked. He wanted to know, and then he steps up and I can't take him out of the lineup, and that's what bigtime players do."
Thomas has started nearly every game since, belting seven homers with an .855 OPS in September before taking it to another level in the playoffs. Safe to say, he's feeling much more comfortable in a Guardians uniform now.
"It feels great, you know, how they accepted me coming in here and trying to just keep this thing going," he said. "Obviously, we've played well this first series and we've got to keep it going for another couple."
And his new team is certainly happy to have him.
"Lane has just, obviously, had a great series for us," Vogt said. "Lane is a phenomenal baseball player, and we're thankful we got him."
