Lowrie sticking with his plan

Rookie's routine paying big dividends for Sox

Ballplayers are nothing if not creatures of habit. Even Jed Lowrie would admit that. The rookie Red Sox infielder already has a pregame routine he sticks to.

"It's a funny game," said Lowrie, who was called up from Pawtucket July 12 when shortstop Julio Lugo went on the disabled list. "And for me, it's about maintaining my approach and letting the results take care of themselves."

Given his results in the Sox' three-game sweep of the Oakland A's, what switch-hitter Lowrie is doing is working. With a seven-game road trip set to begin in Kansas City tonight, Lowrie was asked if he was going to miss the routine he developed during this homestand, in which he went 5 for 10 with a double, a triple, three runs scored, and seven runs batted in.

"That's a good question, but I don't have a choice," said Lowrie, an athletic bag sitting in front of his locker to be packed for the trip.

"We've got to get on a plane and we've got to go play Kansas City. It's not a matter of if I want to leave here or not. We have to."

In Friday's 2-1 victory, Lowrie drove in both of the home team's runs (scoring new guy Jason Bay each time), collecting the first walkoff hit of his career with an infield single in the 12th.

Saturday night, Lowrie contributed to a 12-2 demolition of the A's with three RBIs to match the career high he set in his major league debut April 15 at Cleveland.

And yesterday, in the Sox' 5-2 rain-delayed triumph, Lowrie went 1 for 3 and hit the first triple of his career for two RBIs that helped the Sox build a 4-0 lead in the fourth inning.

Best of all, he made it seem routine.

"He's had some good at-bats for us," said manager Terry Francona, who before the game said Lowrie reminded him of Bill Mueller, the switch-hitting Sox third baseman from 2003-05 who won the '03 American League batting title (.326).

"Again, he's given us a lot of production, in a limited situation. He's gotten some big hits, some timely hits, and he's blended in well, mixed in with the veterans, and he's helped us win."

Drafted in 2005, Mueller's last season with the Sox, Lowrie, 24, said he emulated another player growing up in Salem, Ore.

"Obviously, Billy Mueller's a great hitter, because he's a guy who won the AL batting title," Lowrie said. "But the guy I grew up watching was Carlos Guillen when he was with the Mariners, now with Detroit. But any time you can get compared with a guy who's won the batting title, it's flattering."

What did Lowrie like about Guillen?

"I think it was pretty simple," he said. "He was a switch-hitting shortstop. I mean, that's pretty much it. I always respected the way he approached a game, [was] a patient hitter, and just got the job done."

After the weekend he had, the Fenway Faithful likely departed the premises saying the same thing of Lowrie, especially when he came to the plate in the fourth with one out and Mike Lowell (double to center) and Bay (single to left) on the corners.

Lowrie ripped a triple off starter Dallas Braden that sailed over the head of center fielder Carlos Gonzalez, who had been playing shallow.

When the ball jumped off his bat, "I was thinking sac fly," Lowrie said. "Then I saw the ball was carrying and got over [Gonzalez's] head and I just kept running."

Lowrie chuckled when asked if the A's underestimated his power.

"They don't know me as a player," he said. "I'm not saying that they made the wrong call by playing me in, but I hit the ball well and got a triple out of it, got it over his head."

Lowrie credited his hit to a simple lesson learned long ago: "I've always been taught to hit it where it's pitched," he said. "And when I'm swinging the bat well, that's what I'm doing."

It's all part of Lowrie's routine, which he hopes to make more of a habit by sticking around when Lugo comes off the disabled list.

"Any opportunity you get up here, no matter if it's short or long, you want to show people what you can do," Lowrie said. "I didn't show up and say, 'This is my time.' I just came with the same approach that I've had my whole career. For me, as long as I take care of my approach, then the results will be there in the end."

Michael Vega can be reached at vega@globe.com.