Lowell still is making adjustments

"The flights don't do me any favors," he said before the Sox flew cross-country from Oakland to Boston. "I don't know if it's the pressure up there, but I sit a certain way and feel it coming. I'm not saying it's like dislocating [my hip]. I'm getting old, man. The pressure doesn't agree with me all the time."

There's not much Lowell, 35, can do about the flights, but he has been doing as much as he can to get ready for each game as he continues to come back from hip surgery in October.

"I'm not used to the steps I need to take before every game," Lowell said. "I understand it. As long as I get here on time and I'm able to do that, I don't see why I shouldn't be able to play day games after night games or anything like that. I don't think anything should hold me back.

"I've got to get in the hot tub and they say you've got to get your blood flowing and all that. More stretching, hot tub, massage. I'm more of just a stretch on my own, get going [player]."

Lowell was told that at the six-month mark after surgery, which comes in about a week, he should be able to do everything on the baseball field. He's already passed that point in his rehab. He's played in all nine games this season. But, asked if he is where he expected to be, he said, "I don't really know."

His hip has been mostly free from the excruciating pain he played with last season. There's still occasional soreness, but he generally hasn't had many problems. He did, though, in about the 10th and 11th innings Tuesday night. "I just feel that one side feels really stable, the other side doesn't feel that stable," he said. "They told me that's normal and I'm going to feel that. It's not like I'm panicking or anything, but it's something that I guess I got to get used to."

So, too, are the double plays.

Lowell, who is hitting .229, has never grounded into more than 22 double plays (2006) in a season, but already has four. That's one every 8.75 at-bats, putting him on pace for about 68 in a 600- at-bat season. (The season record is 36, set by Jim Rice in 1984.) Lowell is tied with Franklin Gutierrez for the major league lead. He isn't helped by his foot speed, which has dipped since the surgery.

"At the plate, I really don't [feel anything]," Lowell said. "I don't know if it's that I'm trying to concentrate and I don't feel it. It's more defense, because it's that ready position - you get up."

"I kind of already a little bit assumed that," Masterson said Wednesday. "We have a lot of options, if we want to bring up a guy or with the offday, working that in and all those things, but like I told John [Farrell], I'm ready whenever and wherever they need me."

Masterson joked that he could pitch "probably till my arm falls off." He said he might be able to go 75 pitches, perhaps five or six innings.