A .171 average, and now an intercostal strain
Forty days in Atlanta, one home run to show for it, and now ten days on the shelf. The Braves placed outfielder Lane Thomas on the 10-day injured list Friday with a strained left intercostal muscle, the move backdated to Tuesday.
The warning came a day earlier. Thomas was scratched at the last minute Thursday, before the 3-1 win over Tampa Bay, and the training staff evidently saw no reason to gamble on him twice.
He had come over from the Kansas City Royals on August 2. Twenty-one games later the line reads .171, one homer, three RBIs. Not what Atlanta paid for.
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The timing is the real problem
Take the full season, Royals and Braves combined, and Thomas sits at .224 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs across 118 games. Below his own standard, never mind the club’s.
What makes Friday sting is the calendar. Philadelphia is in town, Atlanta holds a four-game cushion at the top of the National League East, and three games can either close a division or crack it back open.
DaShawn Keirsey Jr. gets the call from Gwinnett
Atlanta filled the roster spot by recalling outfielder DaShawn Keirsey Jr. from Triple-A Gwinnett, hours before first pitch.
Keirsey is 29 and has not played a big-league game since his 2025 stint with the Minnesota Twins. The Triple-A slash line is modest enough, .247 with six home runs and 36 RBIs, but one number jumps: 40 stolen bases in 109 games. That is almost certainly why he is here. In a September race decided by a game or two, a man who can steal ninety feet off the bench has a job.
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