It hasn't been a good month for Texas Rangers reliever Mark Lowe.
He's had sporadic work in September, managing just 3 1/3 innings in five appearances, in which he has allowed seven earned runs. That came after an August which saw him pitch 4 2/3 innings with zero runs that saw his season ERA dip down to 2.00. Now? It's 3.43 after he gave up a home run to the Oakland Athletics' No. 9 hitter to lead off the top of the 10th inning in a tie game in Oakland's win on Tuesday night.
Lowe said he has found it hard to get into a rhythm with his limited workload, having gone a week at a time without getting into game action.
"It's really hard to sit out there for a long time and not pitch and get put in there and be on top of your game," Lowe told ESPNDallas. "I think anybody in this clubhouse will tell you the same thing. There are the best players in the world in this league right now and a lot of those guys are playing every day. It's not an excuse, but it makes it harder to be consistent when you're not in there consistently."
With his awful September, Lowe is getting further and further away from a postseason roster spot in what would likely be an eight-man bullpen with names like Joe Nathan, Mike Adams, Alexi Ogando, Scott Feldman, Robbie Ross, Koji Uehara and Michael Kirkman taking up space, and that doesn't even include what the club ultimately decides to do with Martin Perez, who will make his second start, since taking over for Feldman in the rotation, tonight.
