Lowe ‘plenty good’ in Braves spring debut

Dunedin, Fla. — Derek Lowe pitched two innings against Toronto on Saturday in his Braves debut. The rest (five hits, one run, three strikeouts) was details.

“How do you analyze two innings?” the veteran right-hander said. “It’s pretty much impossible — good, bad or indifferent.”

Kelly Johnson went 2-for-3 with a two-run double in a 6-3 Braves victory. Center-field prospect Jordan Schafer had two hits and three runs batting leadoff.

Lowe gave up five singles before recording his fourth out. After three hits to start the second inning, he notched back-to-back strikeouts and a flyout against the last three batters he faced.

Lowe said the hits stopped after he started throwing something more than a steady diet of fastballs.

“I know when you face an American League team, it’s going to be a fastball-hitting team,” said the sinkerballer, who pitched eight seasons in the AL before spending the past four with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“After the fifth hit, we started throwing a lot more breaking balls.”

Of the five singles, one was hit hard in the air and four were on the ground, including two that were hit hard. Lowe threw 24 strikes in 39 pitches.

“I thought he was plenty good,” manager Bobby Cox said.

Mystery man impresses

The Braves can’t account for several years of Rafael Cruz’s career earlier this decade, but they like what they’ve seen from the hard-throwing Dominican.

“How ‘bout Cruz; how hard was he throwing?” Cox said after the thick-bodied right-hander pitched a perfect seventh inning with one strikeout.

He’s a non-roster invitee listed as 31 years old, 6 feet, and 225 pounds, though he looks heavier. The Braves signed Cruz in the offseason after their scout saw him throw a 98-mph fastball during a Dominican Winter League game.

Cruz was a former teammate of Kenshin Kawakami on the Chunichi Dragons in Japan, but the Braves’ media guide lists no stats for him most of the decade. They haven’t found reliable accounting of where Cruz pitched those years.

Unlike many ballparks, radar-gun readings aren’t posted at Dunedin Stadium. Cox had a good idea what he saw. “He threw [in the] high-90s,” he said. “Mid-90s, at least. He threw a couple of sliders, too. Buckled one guy.”

Etc.

Reliever Blaine Boyer allowed a hit and a walk and finished with a strikeout in his one-inning debut, delayed until Saturday after he cut the tip of his right index finger on an apple slicer. He said he felt rusty, but the healed cut held up well. … Prospect Luis Valdez had an erratic spring debut, facing six batters with four walks and two strikeouts in the eighth inning. Last season at Class AA Mississippi, Valdez had 28 saves and 77 strikeouts in 65-1/3 innings.