SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Mark Lowe was recovering from back surgery when he came to the Texas Rangers in a trade with Cliff Lee. Now the reliever is joining the ace left-hander in the World Series.
The Rangers added Lowe to their roster before Game 1 on Wednesday, replacing left-handed reliever Clay Rapada.
Lowe made only three appearances for the Rangers the last week of the regular season. He wasn’t on the roster for the AL division or championship series, but went to the Arizona Fall League several times to pitch in games and threw batting practice for the Rangers.
“I don’t know how many miles I’ve flown to get ready. I had BPs, bullpens, the whole nine yards since that last game,” Lowe said before Game 1 at AT&T Park against San Francisco. “My arm strength finally came around. With that came my slider and everything else was ready to go. My back is completely fine. I couldn’t feel better.”
The Giants made no changes, deciding to keep pitcher Barry Zito off the roster.
Rapada was added to the Rangers roster for the AL championship series, but didn’t appear in any of the six games against the New York Yankees.
Lowe had a 3.48 ERA in 11 appearances for Seattle before being placed on the DL on May 3 with lower back inflammation. He was traded July 9 with Lee, the Game 1 starter.
Manager Ron Washington said the Rangers would “pick our spots” for using Lowe, and that the right-hander would be used to face only one or two outs against the predominantly right-handed Giants.
“We didn’t need any length,” Washington said. “We liked what we saw out of Mark. He uses the bottom half of the strike zone. He has a good sinker, good slider, changeup. He’ll be a good bridge guy for us.”
Lowe said knowing he would have a chance to pitch in the postseason for Texas motivated him to keep working.
“`I don’t know if I would have pushed myself as hard if I wasn’t in this situation. I probably would have taken a step back and just let it happen over time if I was still with Seattle,” he said. ” It’s nice to be added to the roster in the biggest series of the entire season.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.