No Rangers-Rays showdown between Lowes is no fun
ARLINGTON, Texas — Nathaniel Lowe needed only a few words to express his disappointment over not facing younger brother Josh this week as both had been looking forward to:
“It sucks.”
Nathaniel is the former Ray now in his second season playing first base for the Rangers. Josh is the highly touted outfield prospect who was promoted to the Rays’ opening day roster, but after a rough first month (.188, one homer, six RBIs, .601 OPS) was sent unexpectedly back to Triple-A.
The series the siblings circled on their schedules and made plans to hang out during — and the one their parents bought plane tickets to Texas months ago — was not the big deal they all were expecting.
“You’re never going to beat the system,” Nathaniel Lowe said. “So Josh being inactive, it is what it is. And this team is obviously having success over there without him, so you can’t knock what Tampa (Bay) does. It’s just part of it.”
Nathaniel has been doing just okay for the Rangers, hitting .259 with three homers, 16 RBIs and a .677 OPS.
He got a talking to a couple days ago from manager Chris Woodward, who wanted to make sure Lowe felt “supported, but also a little sense of urgency, like, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get this thing going. You can’t take any day for granted.’ ”
Woodward said Lowe was “scuffling a little bit offensively,” and similar to a stretch last season “the trends were kind of going in the wrong direction,” specifically in getting beat by fastballs and chasing pitches out of the zone.
“There were things that were a little concerning, so you just have to be honest with him,” Woodward said. “Defensively he needed to play a little bit better. He’s a grown man, and he accepted it, and said, ‘OK, I got it.’
“He understands it’s a performance-based industry and we believe in him, but where we are as a team, we’re getting close, we need performance. We need you to go out and maybe not be All-Star caliber, but you’ve got to be competitive. And I think it resonated.”
Josh is doing better after a rough start at Triple-A, Rays manager Kevin Cash said, hitting .284 with four homers, 23 RBIs and an .868 OPS, but also 35 strikeouts in 21 games. “I think the guys in Tripe-A are pleased with the way he started to turn his season around and having some good at-bats,” Cash said.
Starting at DH ... Kevin Kiermaier
Kevin Kiermaier has done a lot during parts of 10 seasons with the Rays. Monday brought at unexpected first — a start at DH. Cash saw it as a way to keep Kiermaier’s hot bat in the lineup after playing him four straight days in centerfield by getting him off his feet.
Kiermaier said when bench coach Matt Quatraro approached him on the Sunday night flight to Texas with the news, he thought it was in jest: “I was like, wow, I never thought I’d see the day.” Acknowledging “everyone knows I can never sit still,” Kiermaier figured his biggest challenge would be how to stay ready between at-bats. Kiermaier went 1-for-5 with an RBI.
Miscellany
Lefty Ryan Yarbrough starts for the Rays on Tuesday as they eschew using an opener. ... Playing on his 28th birthday, in the park where he famously said “Baseball is fun” during the 2020 World Series, Brett Phillips went 0-for-4. … Shane Baz had a third impressive rehab outing for Durham, working four innings, allowing one hit and one walk while striking out four. Baz, who had spring arthroscopic elbow surgery, is eligible to be reinstated June 6. … The Rays are 8-13 on Memorial Day. … The Rangers held a moment of silence before the game for victims of last week’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. … Manuel Margot’s hitting streak ended Sunday at 15 games, four shy of Jason Bartlett’s 2009 team record.
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