PHILADELPHIA — Just a week after Derek Lowe made headlines with a DUI arrest, he set out to make news of another kind, a historic kind.
Lowe took a no-hitter against the Phillies into the seventh inning of 5-0 win Friday night, flirting with what would have been the second no-hitter of his career, before a blister on his right foot and Shane Victorino spoiled his plans.
Victorino singled to left to lead off the seventh inning in a flurry of back-to-back hits, and Lowe was gone. He left two runners in scoring position with nobody out in the seventh and the Braves leading only 3-0.
But the Braves’ bullpen kept the shutout intact with no-hit work of its own. Eric O’Flaherty, Jonny Venters, and Craig Kimbrel retired eight of the nine batters they saw to secure the Braves’ sixth win in a row.
“I was more mad at myself and my skin,” Lowe said of his flinching in frustration after the Victorino hit. “You don’t get opportunities like this very often, and I saw it. I was trying to do everything I can to trick yourself and say ‘hey,’ [but] I can see balls starting to get up.”
Lowe threw a no-hitter with the Red Sox in 2002, but when his blister surfaced in the fifth inning, he figured it was only a matter of time before his bid ended.
“I knew there was no way,” said Lowe, who is not expected to miss his next start. “My stuff was deteriorating at a rapid pace. This is about as mad as I can be for pitching good because you feel like you’re in a good rhythm. You feel like you can make pitches when you want, and then it just. ...”
The Braves struck out 16 times off Phillies starter Cliff Lee, and an Atlanta Braves record-tying 18 times overall, but squeezed three runs in a third inning outburst off Lee. Ultimately, it was three strikeouts by O’Flaherty in the seventh that made the difference in the game.
He came on in relief of Lowe and struck out Ryan Howard, Ben Francisco and Raul Ibanez to end the seventh inning.
“This place, if you let them get their foot in the door in a game like that — we’ve seen it one too many times,” O’Flaherty said. “All sorts of stuff can happen here, and all of a sudden they’re back in the game. So I knew it was a big situation. I just had to keep trying to make good pitches.”
By the time Victorino singled to start the seventh, Lowe had been favoring his right foot since the second batter of the fifth. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez and trainers came out to check on Lowe, left him in and he gave up a ground-rule double to Placido Polanco to center to give the Phillies a pair of runners in scoring position, after nobody had touched second base all game. The 97th pitch of the game was Lowe’s last.
Lowe had lost four of his past five starts against the Phillies, but pitched six two-hit innings that were reminiscent of his eight shutout innings against the Phillies in his debut as a Brave on Opening Day 2009.
“D-Lowe had a really good change-up tonight,” Jones said. “The hitters were talking about his change-up, and his fastball had the same action and looked the same but there was six, eight miles per hour difference in the two.”
Lowe’s walk to Francisco in the second inning was his only blemish until the seventh.
To understand just how sharp Lowe was, just consider that he outdueled Lee on a night when Lee had a career-high in strikeouts with 16, the most strikeouts by any pitcher in the majors this season, in a matter of seven innings.
The Braves struck out 18 times in all to top their previous season-high of 12 against Josh Johnson and the Marlins on April 13. But when they managed to make contact, they racked up three runs in the third inning.
“When you’ve got a little bit of a generous strike zone on both sides, and you’ve got two guys that know what they’re doing out there — how to manipulate it — it’s pretty tough on the hitters,” Jones said.
They rolled up a 3-0 lead on Lee by stroking three doubles in a span of four hitters in the fourth inning. Alex Gonzalez, Brian McCann and Dan Uggla all doubled with two outs in the third inning.
“It just seemed to be all or nothing,” Jones said. “Whenever we put a ball in play, it found a hole. That’s a whole lot of striking out, I know that.”
