An ‘uncomfortable’ batting practice helps Josh Lowe get back to basics

ST. PETERSBURG — The RBI single was soft, short and altogether unremarkable except in its backstory.

Nearly four months of stops and starts, rehab assignments and resets had Josh Lowe feeling exasperated and hitting .194. So before Thursday’s game against the Cubs, he tried something new.

Instead of facing the normal half-speed throws during batting practice, hitting coach Chad Mottola had a machine firing fastballs from a shortened distance while aiming at the corners of the strike zone. The message was not doing too much, and accepting what the pitcher gives you.

Hours later, Lowe was sent up to pinch-hit in the seventh with two men on base and the Rays trailing by two. After taking two balls and two strikes looking, Lowe took an outside pitch to the opposite field for a soft single that jumpstarted a three-run rally and a 3-2 victory.

“With all of the injuries he went through, he never got the proper buildup that you normally get in spring training,” Mottola said. “So he ends up struggling a little bit and then starts pressing to do damage. So the message today was accept the base hit, and that’s kind of the way it turned out.

“It was the perfect moment coming together, and that hit was just what we needed in that situation.”

Lowe’s journey this season has been a story of poor luck and health that’s culminated with him sitting on the bench three times this week as the Rays have faced lefthanded pitching. He missed much of spring training with a hip injury, followed by an oblique strain, then a hamstring strain during rehab and, finally, a recurrence of the oblique injury two weeks after getting back in the lineup.

He was hitting .119 over his past 42 at-bats with only two extra-base hits.

“Normally, when we’re in the cage, we’re practicing driving the ball. I did the opposite today,” Lowe said. “It was the first time I had BP off the machine while on the field, and I don’t think I hit a ball over 90 mph. For me, I think less is going to be more for the time being until I get a lot more consistent barrels and I’ll just keep building off of that.”

His struggles have not been as noticeable as some of his teammates’, but that doesn’t change the level of frustration. A year after a breakout with a .292 batting average, 20 homers and 32 steals, the Rays were expecting Lowe to provide consistent thump in the middle of the lineup.

He hit two homers in his first 10 days after coming off the injured list, but has struggled to drive the ball since then.

“Josh would be the first to say this year has not been fun for him to date,” manager Kevin Cash said. “He can certainly turn that around and getting results like (this) is going to help.

“He got beat up working on the machine today, trying to get his timing at the plate and doing some things that maybe aren’t the most conventional to try to feel good when he gets in a game. Challenge himself before the game and then see if he can take that into the game and have success. He’s got a really good head on him and I’m confident he’ll be fine and get it going.”

Lowe, of course, is not the only hitter struggling to find his groove. The Rays averaged 2.3 runs per game in the seven-game homestand and needed late rallies to squeak out two wins against the Cubs.

The Rays are averaging fewer home runs per game than any team in the majors, but Lowe seems willing to take a step back to find himself before worrying about driving the ball over the wall.

“(Mottola) and I really dove into my swing and really broke it down even to a point of a baseline level,” Lowe said. “You think about the amount of adrenaline that flows through our bodies when we’re in the box and it’s completely different than a cage environment or batting practice.

“You think you’re going to have the still heartbeat but until you’re in the box you don’t understand how fast the game can get. So, going back to what I said before, I decided to approach it with the idea of less is more, taking my base hits no matter where the ball is pitched.”

For the record, Lowe’s single to left barely travelled 200 feet and had an exit velocity of 74 mph.

It wasn’t a thing of beauty, but it was a start.

John Romano can be reached at jromano@tampabay.com. Follow @romano_tbtimes.

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