Boos Long Gone, Lowe Starts to Feel Good

Derek Lowe has gone from bullpen to rotation, from boos to cheers, from dreading going to the ballpark last year to reporting several hours early this year, when he is the first-half favorite for the American League’s Cy Young Award that usually goes to Roger Clemens or Boston Red Sox teammate Pedro Martinez.

Lowe, who faces the Dodgers today with an 11-2 record and league-best 1.85 earned-run average, also has gone from something of a one-pitch closer who was so inconsistent last year that he would wear his warmup jacket before games to hide his uniform number from hooting Fenway Park fans (as if that alone could disguise his 6-foot-6 frame) to a four-pitch starter spotting his sinker, curve, changeup and cut fastball almost at will.

“He’s reached the point where the team expects to win when he goes out there,” Manager Grady Little said. “He’s getting to be the same kind of pitcher, taking on the same kind of role, as Pedro.”

Revitalized in spirit and personnel, the Red Sox have the best record in baseball. They have emerged from a divisive and traumatic 2001 season in the same way Lowe has, regaining what he calls his “quirky and left of center” persona.

“I wouldn’t call him flaky,” catcher Jason Varitek said. “I’d just say he’s a left-hander in a right-hander’s body.”

There was Lowe, all 78 inches, displaying some Mark Madsen moves in accompaniment to the meringue sounds booming from the clubhouse stereo in San Diego as he stood at his locker, bouncing through an interview.

“I’m just very laid back,” he said. “I don’t take too many things seriously. Through the course of a season, I’ll do a lot of dumb things that you normally see only a left-hander do. It’s who I am.”

Lowe might be a maturing 29, but what pitcher hasn’t forgotten about the runner on second base and gone into a full windup, allowing the runner easy access to third, and what pitcher hasn’t delivered a pickoff throw to first, forgetting his first baseman was in normal position and not holding the runner?

Potentially more damaging--and admittedly dumber--was a high school incident in which Lowe, a touted pitching prospect expected to be a high draft choice out of Dearborn, Mich., tried to dunk during a pickup basketball game and ripped up his hand on a rusted rim.

The sufficiently healed Lowe was eventually selected by the Seattle Mariners in the eighth round of the 1991 draft and had worked his way through the Mariner system to reach the majors in 1997, when he and Varitek were traded to Boston for Heathcliff Slocumb in a deal that evolved into a steal for the Red Sox.

Varitek, once named to the all-time college team by the publication Baseball America, became the regular catcher in a lineup that includes former Georgia Tech shortstop and teammate Nomar Garciaparra.

Lowe, after appearing in 63 games in 1998 and saving 15 in 74 appearances in 1999, tied for the league lead by registering 42 saves in 2000, when he also pitched a flawless inning in the All-Star game.

As to what happened last year, hindsight isn’t always 20-20.

Maybe Lowe didn’t prepare well enough, thinking it wasn’t necessary for a closer who usually works one inning at a time.

Maybe he relied too much on a fastball that isn’t overpowering, fearing criticism if he got beat with a secondary pitch.

Maybe he still yearned to start, as he had done in the Seattle system, and which he admits to having yearned for even amid his closing success of 2000.

Whatever the reason, 2001 went bad from the start.

He drew the loss on opening day and the loss in the third game. Instead of dwelling on the positives of 2000, Lowe said he obsessed on the losses and became something of a “mental wreck.”

“The saddest thing about it is that we’re blessed and honored to play in the major leagues,” Lowe said. “When you dread coming to a major league stadium, you know you’ve hit rock bottom. They booed me in Boston from the time I got to the park until I went home. I couldn’t wait to go on the road. I knew that if I gave up a hit on the road, at least somebody would be cheering me.

“It was a year I thought would never end.”

Lowe blew six of 30 save opportunities and suffered 10 losses. No other American League reliever lost more.

He would eventually spend time with a sports psychologist, but the turning point didn’t come on a couch.

It came on the mound, when Lowe received the opportunity to start three otherwise meaningless games in September and responded, giving up only two runs and 12 hits in 16 innings.

It was a building block, a confidence boost, the job he wanted.

“Those three starts,” he says now, “were almost enough to erase the previous five months.”

They were certainly enough to put Lowe to work in the off-season.

“I ran more, lifted more, studied more, took it more seriously than I ever have,” he said. “The booing stuck with me. The failure drove me.

“I knew I was better, and I wanted people in Boston to be able to say that I had the courage to come back, that I didn’t just fold my tent.”

Lowe has pitched a no-hitter against Tampa Bay and a near no-hitter against Baltimore. He has restricted opposing batters to a league-best .186 average. Left-handed batters, who had hit .288 before this season, are hitting .193 and unable now to lean in because of refinements in his cut fastball, which enables Lowe to pitch inside against them.

“Location, location, location,” Varitek said. “As a starter, he can throw a wider variety of pitches, and he’s simply become more confident and consistent with them. It all starts with his ability to command the fastball.

“He doesn’t throw as hard as Pedro, but he has more movement. Pedro is a strikeout, fly-ball pitcher. Derek is a ground-ball pitcher. His infielders know they’re going to be active. His record speaks to how good he’s been and how good his supporting cast has been.”

The efficiency of Lowe’s sinker is illustrated by the fact he has given up only two home runs in 97 1/3 innings. He also leads the league in ground-ball-to-fly-out ratio and, by inducing 15 double plays, shares the lead in that category with Kenny Rogers of the Texas Rangers.

Life is a learning experience.

In 1996, at 23, Lowe was arrested on a domestic violence charge involving his then girlfriend and now wife, Trinka. He went through five months of counseling, the record was expunged, and Lowe has said that he deeply regrets an incident that has not been repeated.

Similarly, he said, the learning experience of last year, when he “tended to treat every batter as if he was Babe Ruth,” should work for him as he approaches what he called “the uncharted water” of the second half.

“It’s really just a matter of being able to be more creative as a starter,” he said, “and at 29, when people say you should be coming into your prime, I can do things that I’ve never been able to do before, as far as pitching to both sides of the plate and sinking and elevating pitches.”

The Red Sox are still in the pitching market, but Lowe’s emergence is reflected in their record and their league-leading pitching statistics. In addition, with Martinez’s physical status still tenuous to a degree, Lowe is critical to their continued success.

“I’ve always said that Pedro is still our ace and I’m third [behind Martinez and John Burkett] in a line of five guys,” Lowe said. “To be an ace, you’ve got to do it for a few years and win the big games. Pedro has three Cy Young awards and has won in the playoffs.

“I was at rock bottom and now I’ve dug out and can show my face without people screaming negative things. I couldn’t have predicted or asked for a better start, but at this point that’s all it is, a start.”

As a left-hander in a right-hander’s body, however, Lowe is someone the Red Sox think is good enough and loose enough to keep it going.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

*--* Role Reversa ls Boston’ s Derek Lowe and the Dodgers ‘ Eric Gagne have had turnaro und seasons in differe nt fashion . Lowe has emerged as one of the America n League’ s top starter s after struggl ing as a relieve r in 2001, and Gagne has become the Nationa l League’ s top closer after disappo inting as a starter last season. A look at their turnaro unds: LOWE GAGNE 2001 As 2002 As Starter 2001 As Starter 2002 As Reliever Relieve r 4-10 11-2 W-L 5-6 0-0 24 of 30 SV-Opp 26 of 27 4.04 1.85 ERA 4.95 1.17 75 2/3 97 1/3 IP 137 1/3 38 1/3 91 62 Hits 133 18 294 186 BA 254 140 7 2 HR 21 3 1:44 1:166 HR to AB 1:25 1:43 27 23 BB 42 4 3.2 2.1 BB/9IP 2.8 0.9 67 63 SO 120 56 8.0 5.8 SO/9IP 7.9 13.2

*--*