Elevated pitches continue to elevate Lowe's ERA

For the first few weeks of the season, it looked as if the Cleveland Indians might have caught lightning in a bottle with Derek Lowe. A few weeks later. not so much.

In the Indians' 10-9 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Monday, Lowe was not involved in the decision, but he was involved in giving up plenty of hits and runs. Lowe pitched five innings and was charged with seven runs on 11 hits.

The ugly start was the continuation of a nasty run for Lowe. In his first eight starts of the season, Lowe was 6-1 with a 2.05 ERA. However, in his last six starts, he is 1-4 with a 8.13 ERA.

The recent slump has caused Lowe's season ERA to go from 2.05 to 4.30. The one constant lately has been inconsistency with his sinking fastball. He's not getting the groundballs he was getting earlier in the season.

"You can tell early in the game," manager Manny Acta said. "When a sinkerballer is giving up fly balls, that's not a good sign."

Lowe gave up a high percentage of fly balls in his five innings Monday, and it got very ugly for him very fast.

The Indians need for Lowe to emerge from his slump as quickly as possible. Even with the win, they've lost seven of their past 11 games, and poor pitching has been the common denominator. The Indians have the second-highest ERA in the American League.