Rays outfielder Josh Lowe set to start rehab assignment Thursday

ST. PETERSBURG — Outfielder Josh Lowe’s return to the lineup is starting to come into view for the Rays.

Manager Kevin Cash said Lowe, the team’s most productive left-handed hitter last season, is slated to begin a rehab assignment Thursday with Triple-A Durham.

And he might not need too much time there.

“It’s kind of all just how he feels,” Cash said. “(Sunday), he said he feels really good. It’s going to take him a minute to get his timing going. But if he feels good, that’s most important.”

Lowe initially was sidelined in late February, after playing in two spring games, due to left hip inflammation. He was working toward a March 17 return to the lineup with he strained his right oblique.

He started playing in extended spring games last week. Assuming he gets through a Tuesday game with no issues, he will join Durham Wednesday in Worcester, Massachusetts, and play on Thursday. A return to the Rays before the end of April seems possible and would add much-needed left-handed power, plus speed, to the lineup.

Another lefty hitter expected to play a key role, Jonathan Aranda, also is progressing toward a return.

Aranda had two pins in his fractured right ring finger removed Monday and is expected to start taking swings in the next few days.

“He felt like he was going to be pretty much full-go to start ramping up,” Cash said. “He’s been throwing. He felt like he would be able to swing pretty pain-free. So if that’s the case, we’ll start working to get him built up.”

Cash said Aranda, who was injured March 19, will go through the standard progression of batting cage drills, starting with hitting balls off a tee, and work toward taking batting practice on the field before starting a rehab assignment.

“So, still a ways away,” Cash said, “but (moving) in the right direction.”

Hey, it’s you guys again

Starters have different ways of dealing with facing the same team in consecutive outings. Expect Rays right-hander Aaron Civale to take a cerebral approach in making adjustments Tuesday against the Angels.

“He’s a unique mind in terms of how he approaches his starts,” pitching coach Kyle Snyder said Monday. “This is a unique situation, (playing) out of division and you’re facing a team twice in a row.

“But he is very good at kind of reverse-engineering things that have happened. And being able to act on those, whether it’s the second time through (the order in a game) or the second time he faces a team in a week. And it’s pretty impressive the lengths that he goes through in terms of preparing himself and his ability to realize how to keep guys in between (and off-balance). He’s going to lean on some of what he was successful in doing that last time, and then probably just try to apply that.”

Civale worked five innings April 9 at Angel Stadium, allowing a two-run homer to Mike Trout, as well as an unearned run. He walked one and struck out four.

Jackie Robinson Day reflections

The Angels’ Ron Washington, one of two current Black managers in the majors, said celebrating Jackie Robinson Day, as was done throughout Major League Baseball on Monday, is very important: “It means everything, because I don’t think I’ll be sitting here managing and talking to you (reporters) if it wasn’t for Jackie Robinson breaking that barrier.” ... All players and coaches wore No. 42 in Robinson’s honor.

Miscellany

NFL free-agent receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling, a St. Petersburg native and product of Lakewood High and USF, threw out the first pitch, which was more than a little bit outside. … The Rays Baseball Foundation and Rowdies Soccer Fund on Monday announced $25,000 Racial Equity Grants to the Helen Gordon Davis Centre for Women, James B. Sanderlin Neighborhood Family Center, Sing Out and Read, and Where Love Grows Inc. as part of their annual contribution “to support organizations committed to ending systemic racism.”

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