Mets pound Lowe early in win over Braves

By David O'Brien

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

He has pitched poorly plenty of other nights for the Braves, but seldom has Derek Lowe been as bad or disappointed quite as many as Friday night.

The veteran gave up four runs in the first inning and didn’t make it out of the third in a 12-2 loss against the New York Mets at Turner Field, his third consecutive defeat and the 10th in 15 games for the Braves. The Braves allowed 20 hits in their worst home loss of the season.

"Just an awful start at the wrong time," said Lowe (9-15), who gave up six runs and nine hits in 2-1/3 innings and fell to 0-3 with a 10.12 ERA in his past three starts.

A crowd of 43,901 came ready to see the Braves move a step closer to clinching the National League wild card, but instead saw Lowe get pounded and the Braves’ lead reduced to 3 1/2 games over surging St. Louis with 11 games left. The Cardinals beat Philadelphia 4-2 in 11 innings.

The Braves led the Cardinals by 8 1/2 games Sept. 5, but were swept in a three-game series at St. Louis last weekend.

“Better to be up 3-1/2 than down 3-1/2," Braves catcher Brian McCann said. "That’s a stretch, but we’ve just got to continue to play hard and win some ballgames.”

The magic number to clinch the wild-card playoff berth remained at nine — any combination of Braves wins and Cardinals losses totaling nine would put the Braves in the postseason.

David Wright drove in five runs with two homers in the first four innings for the Mets, who snapped a six-game losing skid and scored twice as many runs in those four innings (10) as they scored in their previous four games combined.

“Just a rough start there," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "It’s just one of those things. We had some opportunities to get back in the game, and we didn’t capitalize on it. And it just kind of snowballed on us.

"The good thing about this, we forget about it quickly  and come out and play tomorrow.”

Does he still have confidence in 38-year-old Lowe?

“Oh, absolutely," Gonzalez said. "I have confidence in all the guys. We’ve played  too long and too hard not to have confidence... I always think positive. It’s just one of those starts. We’ll get him going again in the next five days, and get him back on the winning track.”

Wright hit two-run shot off Lowe in the first inning and a three-run drive off Julio Teheran in the four-run fourth.

“This was terrible," said Lowe, who is 3-8 with a 6.12 ERA in his past 11 starts.  "It was non-competitive pitching from the first pitch... Honestly, what can you say? They did anything they wanted. You tried to make competitive pitches, and it just didn’t happen. Again, bad game at the wrong time."

Teheran replaced Lowe and was charged with four runs and four hits in 2 2/3 innings in his first major league relief appearance, and only his second relief appearance at any level.

After the Mets staked Chris Capuano (11-12) to a 4-0 lead in the first inning, the Braves cut it in half with a run in each of the first two innings. Michael Bourn led off the first with a triple and scored on a Chipper Jones sacrifice fly, and Martin Prado led off the second with his first home run in more than a month.

Prado had gone 132 at-bats since his last long ball Aug. 9, and batted .219 with 10 RBIs over 31 games in the interim.

After laboring through a 33-pitch, five-hit first inning, Lowe pitched a perfect second with two strikeouts. But any thoughts of him finding a groove were quickly quashed in the third inning.

After a groundout to start the inning, Lowe surrendered four consecutive one-out singles, the last a two-RBI bouncer to center field by Josh Thole. That pushed the lead back to four runs, 6-2, and brought out manager Fredi Gonzalez to replace his pitcher. Lowe was greeted by boos — less than a chorus, more than a smattering — as he walked off the field.

It was Lowe’s briefest start since a two-inning exit against the Mets on Sept. 16, 2009, and his worst since giving up 11 hits and eight runs in 3 2/3 innings on Aug. 18, 2009, also against the Mets.

His worst start came in September 2004 with Boston, when the right-hander gave up seven runs (six earned) in one inning at Yankee Stadium. Lowe went 14-12 with a 5.42 ERA that season with Boston, the last time he finished with an ERA higher than his current 4.94.

The Braves, assuming they hang on to win the wild card, can only hope that Lowe finds a way to turn things around in the postseason as he did that year with Boston. He was 3-0 with a 1.86 ERA in four games in that postseason, including clinching wins in the American League Championship Series against New York and the World Series against St. Louis.

Lowe was 31 then. Still, McCann insisted the Braves believe he can come through again.

“Absolutely," McCann said. "We’re confident in Derek. You look at his starts, he’s kept us in a lot of the games he’s pitched this year. He could easily have 15 wins if we’d have hit for him. Early on we didn’t swing the bats for him. He could easily have 15 wins with how he’s pitched.”

First innings have been a problem for Lowe all season, and his first-inning opponents’ average climbed to .328 with Friday’s outing. He had not allowed a first-inning homer until Wright did the honors.

Lowe is in the third season of a four-year, $60 million contract. The Braves are deep with young starting pitchers, and would presumably trade him this winter if they could. Problem is, he’s owed $15 million for the 2012 season, which could severely limit trade options unless the Braves pay a sizeable portion of his salary.

He got off to strong start in his first season with the Braves in 2009, then got hit hard in a couple of June interleague starts, including a June 14 loss at Baltimore in which he allowed seven runs in 2 1/3 innings.

Beginning with that game, he has a 33-34 record and 4.73 ERA in his past 86 starts.

“This has been a long year, probably the worst year I’ve ever had," said Lowe, who matched the career-worst loss total from his 12-15 season with the Dodgers in 2005.  "Right now obviously you feel discouraged and frustrated, all those things.

"But next time out, you’ve got to find a way to figure it out, because this has been bad pitching too long.”