Sitting pretty

Installed at DH, Lowell leads Sox past Twins with four hits

May 26, 2009|Amalie Benjamin, Globe Staff

MINNEAPOLIS - In most stadiums, a designated hitter can exit the dugout at will, bound for the batting cage or the video room. He can focus on hitting because, for him, that's all there is. So wanting to get a better look at, say, the slider that fooled him in the last inning is encouraged. Not so in the Metrodome, where the batting cages are a marathon away, and a DH might miss his next at-bat if he tried a visit.

So Mike Lowell, removed from his position at third base and installed at DH for David Ortiz, was mostly confined to the bench in yesterday's Memorial Day game against the Twins. Not only are the batting cages all the way out in left field in Minnesota, but the video replays are a hike as well.

"You don't even want to go see the replays of your at-bats, because of the stairs," said Lowell. "That's too much of a haul."

So instead of the traditional DH time-killers and improvement techniques, Lowell said he "stretched, kind of just moved around. Jump in place. Try to stay loose. I just didn't want to get to the point where I felt like I hadn't done anything in 30 minutes before my next at-bat."

While the Sox have been getting virtually no production from their DH spot - last in the American League in average, on-base percentage, slugging, home runs, and hits - that picked up yesterday with four hits from Lowell, as the Sox narrowly won, 6-5, in front of 27,636 at the Metro dome.

Though all his hits were singles, and he picked up just one RBI, it was marked improvement for a player who had had just 27 career at-bats in DH spot.

"Actually, if you get a hit your first at-bat, it kind of makes things easier," Lowell said. "In the fourth inning, Paul [Lessard], our trainer, and I stretched out again. I just didn't want to be cold out there.

"I don't think the fact that I DH'd equals I got four hits, or I'm going to tell David he better start playing first."

As part of a two-day plan, Lowell will get a seat on the bench for the entirety of tonight's game, with Ortiz returning to his customary DH spot. And the Sox will see if the offense they generated behind a hurling Brad Penny (in more ways than one) will continue.

"He'd come out, throw up, laugh, go get 'em," manager Terry Francona said of his starter. "He handled it really well. He was feeling sick all morning. He said every time he threw up, he felt better. I didn't really want to witness that."

With Penny not quite on top of his game - he called himself "lethargic" and said the nausea was a "sinus thing" - and the Sox using a makeshift lineup, the team still battered Francisco Liriano for five runs and 11 hits over four innings, despite a slider that "at times was almost devastating," said Francona.