For Lowe, win still great stuff

It didn't take long last night for Derek Lowe to realize he didn't have his best stuff.

One pitch. One 90-mile-per-hour fastball that Devil Rays leadoff hitter Carl Crawford caught on the fat of the bat.

The hard line drive caromed off the left-field wall and by the time David McCarty threw the ball back to the infield, Crawford was on second base.

It went from bad to worse. The next hitter, Julio Lugo, dropped a bunt. Lowe should have cleanly fielded it and thrown him out. Instead, he bobbled the ball, and Tampa Bay had runners on first and third.

If that wasn't bad enough, after Rocco Baldelli's ground out plated Crawford, Robert Fick lined a double down the right-field line, giving the Devil Rays a 2-0 lead. The Sox' amazing string of shutout innings, which began in New York, ended at 32.

Nobody in the Sox dugout was thinking about the streak at that point. "I had really given that streak no thought," said manager Terry Francona. "You don't want to jump down, 2-0. I was more concerned about that. I really didn't pay much attention to it."

The first inning ended with a ray of optimism. Jose Cruz Jr., who had owned Lowe during his career (9 hits, including 2 homers and a .474 average) grounded out to end the threat.

Lowe caught a break in the bottom of the first when Sox hitters dismissed Tampa Bay starter Damian Moss, racking up a seven-run inning that gave their teammate a five-run cushion.

However, Lowe didn't pitch much better for the next six innings. Some fine plays saved him.

He had more escapes than Indiana Jones. Lowe never had a 1-2-3 inning. The closest he came was the fourth, when a double play erased Geoff Blum, who had reached on a leadoff single.

Gabe Kapler made a terrific diving catch off a sinking liner by Baldelli in the third inning to save a run. In the fifth, Lugo stood at third with nobody out and didn't score. He had slammed a triple off the wall in left-center that scored Crawford, but Lowe got a pop out, a soft liner, and a ground out to escape without further damage.

In his final inning, the seventh, he gave up a single to Crawford, then hit Lugo. But Aubrey Huff hit into a Pokey Reese-to-David Ortiz double play, and Baldelli bounced back to Lowe to end the inning.

"That was the last hitter," said Francona. If Lowe hadn't retired Baldelli, the manager said he would have pulled his starter and brought in Mark Malaska.

"That was his absolute last hitter," Francona said. "I thought he was about to run out of gas."

Said Lowe, "All you got to do is look at the game. Nine hits, six doubles. A lot of times you had guys in scoring position with nobody out and he doesn't score."

"You are going to have your games where you go out there as a pitcher and dominate the game, it's going to happen over the course of the year. Those games are going to come. But it's games like this, where you got to grind. The defense made fantastic plays. Gabe did. Pokey turned two double plays, too."

But then again, Lowe is almost a sure bet when he pitches at Fenway. Two years and two days ago, he threw a no-hitter against the Devil Rays.

Put him on the mound at Fenway and the Sox win. He is 34-20 with 39 saves and a 2.95 ERA in 180 games here. Since becoming a starter two years ago, he is 21-7 in 33 home starts, and has won 13 of his last 16 decisions at home.

Right now winning is contagious, and the Sox feel they can win every game.

"It's a lot of fun," said Lowe. "The starters are giving us the innings and obviously, the bullpen is 32 scoreless. It's a lot of fun to come to the ballpark.

"I said in spring training, we have a rotation like ours you are not going to go on a losing streak, and then when you have all five guys pitching well, you are going to be winning. We could be on a serious roll right here. I mean, my little fumble against New York and then [Curt] Schilling giving up the runs in the eighth in Toronto, which is not very likely, you take those out, and we could be on a 10-12-game winning streak. I feel this team could do that at any time."