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Every week, across several sports, players around the DMV (D.C./Maryland/Virginia) shine in individual performance. Every Monday, I’d like to take a minute to highlight some of those performances, including what I view as the best performance and name that athlete the “DMV Star of the Week.”
This week’s DMV Star of the Week is Washington Nationals Right Fielder Lane Thomas.
What a week for the Washington Nationals, who took two out of three games from the Milwaukee Brewers before going on the road and sweeping the Cincinnati Reds in three games.
A big reason for the Nats success this week is the play of right fielder, Lane Thomas. The 27-year old is in his third season in Washington and just had one of his best weeks as a Nat.
Across six games, Thomas batted .360 at the plate with 9 RBI’s, 7 runs scored and 3 home runs.
In the Cincinnati series alone, Thomas batted .538, setting up the Nationals in three dominant wins away from home.
The Nationals are 13-9 since the All Star Break, which is the best of all NL East teams and third-best in the National League.
The team remains 14 games below .500 and 22.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves, but, if nothing else, is building momentum heading into the 2024 campaign with a young core hitting its stride.
The DMV saw four teams in action this past week, including the Washington Nationals, D.C. United, Washington Spirit, and Washington Mystics
Here are some honorable mention performances for DMV Star of the Week:
Washington Spirit Forward Mariana Speckmaier scored the game-winning goal in Friday’s 1-0 win over Orlando in the NWSL Challenge Cup. The goal came in the 98th minute, but unfortunately wasn’t enough to help the Spirit advance out of the group stage of the competition
D.C. United Goalkeeper Alex Bono kept a clean sheet in Thursday’s match against Philadelphia, a game United lost in penalties 5-4, knocking them out of the Leagues Cup
Here’s what’s coming up this week in DMV Sports:
Washington Nationals (49-63, 5th in NL East, 22.5 GB)
8/7 @ Philadelphia
8/8 @ Philadelphia
8/9 @ Philadelphia
8/10 @ Philadelphia
8/11 vs. Oakland
8/12 vs. Oakland
8/13 vs. Oakland
D.C. United: (8-6-10, 30 points, 9th in Eastern Conference)
Off this week (next match 8/20)
Washington Spirit: (6-6-3, 24 points, 5th in NWSL)
Off this week (next match 8/19)
Washington Mystics: (13-14, 4th in Eastern Conference)
8/8 @ Phoenix
8/11 @ Las Vegas
8/13 vs. Chicago
*Denotes games I will be covering in-person