Lowe a double shy of cycle as Rays' bats break out

CHICAGO -- Asked about Brandon Lowe’s recent offensive slump, Rays manager Kevin Cash offered full confidence that a turnaround was coming.

“Brandon's a professional hitter,” Cash said before Thursday’s series opener against the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field. “He's done it for quite some time. He'll do what he needs to to start driving the ball like he's capable of.”

No kidding. Lowe, who entered the game in an 0-for-15 rut over his previous four, flirted with the record books in the Rays’ 14-5 win over the White Sox. He finished a double shy of the third cycle in Rays franchise history, going 3-for-4 out of the cleanup spot.

It was a big night for a Rays offense that had been shut out by the Astros the past two games. Tampa Bay had 16 hits, and everyone in the starting lineup reached base once. The 14 runs were a season high.

“I saw a lot of good at-bats,” Cash said of Lowe postgame. “He laid off some pitches. He’s going to see offspeed pitches; he knows that. It's just up to him to adjust to them, and you're not going to see many better offspeed pitches than what Dylan Cease has, so very encouraging.”

Lowe said he knew he was on cycle watch after he hit a single in the fifth inning, but his focus was on keeping the line moving his next trip to the plate. He drew a four-pitch walk in a five-run sixth inning in which the Rays sent 11 hitters to the plate.

“It was a team at-bat to get up there and not swing out of my shoes to try to hit a double,” Lowe said. “[The cycle] was in the back of my mind, but it wasn't a driving factor to do anything that was going to affect any of our guys behind me.”

Lowe’s first three at-bats went as follows:

• Leading off the second inning, Lowe tripled off a 95.5 mph fastball from Cease on the sixth pitch of the at-bat. Lowe scored on Isaac Paredes' single, the first of five RBIs in the game for Paredes.

• In the third, Lowe fell behind Cease 0-2 before laying off a slider, a changeup and a knuckle-curve to run the count full. He fouled off back-to-back sliders, and when Cease came back with a third, Lowe hit it over the right-field fence.

• In the fifth with the bases loaded, Lowe fouled off five straight 2-2 offerings from Cease, including four different pitch types in a row. He hit a two-run single up the middle on the 10th pitch of the at-bat.

“The 10-pitch at-bat was really encouraging,” Cash said. “A walk in there. I feel like he's right back to where he normally is.”

And there’s no overstating how important that is to the Rays. Lowe played only 65 games in 2022 due to a lower back injury, but you don’t have to look far to see the impact he can have on this team when healthy.

Cash pointed to a stat the White Sox showed on the video board during Thursday’s game: Lowe’s top-10 finishes in American League Most Valuable Player Award voting in 2020 and ‘21.

“That means you're a pretty good player,” Cash said. “We missed him a lot last year. We're very fortunate that we got him back now.”

That feeling extends beyond the field to the mentality Lowe brings to the clubhouse day in and day out as a veteran voice, whether he’s riding high at the plate or in a slump.

“I don't think anybody could have told you he was 0-for-15,” said starter Shane McClanahan, who allowed two runs in five innings. “Brandon has that same approach every single day, same attitude. We believe in that guy.”

It’s a mentality Lowe said former Rays teammates Kevin Kiermaier and Mike Zunino brought to the clubhouse earlier in his career. It’s one he feels a responsibility to carry on as one of the veterans in the clubhouse.

“KK set a great example for me when he was here, Zunino and all those guys,” Lowe said. “Even when they were struggling, they were still up on the front step, cheering guys on and putting this team in front of themselves. So understanding what that meant to me, watching them do it, I understand that I probably need to do that -- as hard as it is to show up and not let the days previous or how bad you’re going at that moment change anything and how you are toward the guys in here.”