NEW YORK — Derek Lowe was supposed to be the “stopper” of the Braves’ starting rotation, the proven veteran who would lead the rotation and prevent losing streaks.
The only things he stopped Tuesday night were the Braves — and some of their optimism and recent momentum.
Lowe was charged with eight runs in an unmitigated disaster of a fourth inning that propelled the New York Mets to a 9-4 win in the opener of a three-game series at Citi Field.
The Mets got a franchise-record 10 hits in the inning, nine off Lowe.
“I tried to do everything possible to stop it,” Lowe said of that bloodletting fourth, when he gave up eight hits to the first nine batters. “I was under every single [pitch], flat. ... I couldn’t stop it. When you have non-competitive stuff, it’s pretty tough to stop it.”
When the dust had settled and Lowe (12-8) had repaired to the bench, the injury-riddled Mets had peppered and pounded him for eight runs and 11 hits in 3-2/3 innings, one of the worst performances of his career as a starter.
Why didn’t manager Bobby Cox replace him sooner?
“I left him in to get a ground ball,” Cox explained. “He got a ground ball; it looked like a perfect double play. But [Angel] Pagan beat it out. Then [Luis] Castillo hit another ground ball past [second baseman Omar] Infante’s glove.”
It must be noted: Cox was referring to the 10th and 11th batters of the inning.
Nine batters earlier, Pagan had led off the inning with a single that caromed off Lowe’s glove hand, hitting him in the pinky finger.
“It had nothing to do with it,” Lowe said, cutting off any speculation that the ball that the Pagan might have led to the plethora of hits that followed.
Matt Diaz’s three-run homer in the second and Adam LaRoche’s solo homer in the third had staked Lowe to a 4-0 lead. But he failed to hold it, and that’s putting it mildly.
It was a jarring performance by a pitcher who was 5-0 with a 2.91 ERA in his previous seven starts.
It was his worst at least since June 25 against the Yankees, when Lowe allowed 11 hits and eight runs (six earned) in three innings. That loss was in the middle of a stretch when Lowe went 0-4 with an 8.51 ERA in five starts.
He bounced back from that with a run of seven consecutive quality starts, but it came to a screeching halt at a most unexpected and inopportune time.
The loss was the third in five games for the Braves, and dropped them back to 6-1/2 games behind National League East leader Philadelphia and four games behind wild-card leader Colorado.
After Cox finally replaced Lowe, Gary Sheffield greeted rookie Kris Medlen with Sheffield’s second double of the inning.
Former Braves right fielder Jeff Francoeur had three hits, including an RBI double off the left-center wall in the fourth inning that would have been a home run in most major league ballparks.
“That was a lot of fun,” Francoeur said. “You just keep pounding balls into the gap. The one thing you don’t want to do is hit a home run — that’s a rally-killer.
Lowe entered the fourth inning with a 4-0 lead, and left trailing 8-4.
He last gave up more than 11 hits in a game on Aug. 6, 2008, when he allowed 13 hits and eight runs in 3-1/3 innings for the Los Angeles Dodgers at St. Louis.
Cox said he didn’t think Lowe necessarily struggled.
“You live by the ground ball, [and] you die by it,” Cox, referring to a handful of hits that Lowe gave up that skipped through the infield.
Lowe, however, said there was a difference between cheap hits through the infield and some of the balls that the Mets smoked through.
“I understand what a ground ball is,” Lowe said. “But even when it’s on the ground, it’s hit hard [Tuesday]. They’re on the ground, but firmly hit.”
Lowe blamed no one but himself. “Just extremely disappointed,” he said.
He also said he understand why Cox left him in, particularly with the pitcher’s spot up leading off the fifth inning — he would rather have let Lowe get through it and have a pinch-hitter lead off the fifth.
Medlen struck out to lead off the fifth.
About the Author
Keep Reading
The Latest
Featured
