Lowry returns, tosses gem for Giants
05/09/2006 12:52 AM ET
Lowry returns, tosses gem for Giants
Left-hander goes seven strong innings in return from DL
By Tony Kuttner / Special to MLB.com
Pedro Feliz bashes a two-run homer in the Giants' five-run fifth inning.
(Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP)
SAN FRANCISCO -- Noah Lowry and the Giants' offense both returned Monday, and
that paid dividends as San Francisco snapped a four-game losing streak with a
7-5 win over Houston.
"That was great," manager Felipe Alou said. "Wasn't it refreshing?. You know
we needed that."
The Giants needed it in more ways than one. They needed the offense to come to
life after struggling to score runs for most of the previous 10 days.
They needed a starting pitcher other than Jason Schmidt to deliver a solid
outing.
And they needed some revenge on Astros starter Roy Oswalt (5-2), who last
month stifled the Giants with 8 1/3 innings of shutout ball.
"That was big, especially having Noah back, and especially not having Barry
playing," said Mark Sweeney, who took over left field for the idle Barry Bonds
and tripled home a run during the Giants' five-run fifth inning.
While Sweeney took over for Bonds defensively, Pedro Feliz picked up the slack
on offense.
Batting in Bonds' cleanup spot, Feliz singled home the Giants' first run in
the opening inning, than hit a two-run homer in the fifth that stretched the
Giants' lead to 5-2.
"I just go in there trying to battle," said Feliz, who now has five homers on
the year and is 643 shy of passing Babe Ruth on the all-time list. "Sometimes
good things happen."
Good things have been happening a lot recently for him. He had a six-game
hitting streak snapped Sunday in Philadelphia, but bounced right back Monday.
"Pedro has got his stroke going," Alou said. "He's a streaky hitter and he's
hot right now.
"But what about his defense? It's like nobody knows how good he is. He never
makes a bad throw, that guy is perfect."
Feliz did make the defensive play of the night, charging in to glove a short
hop and gunning a throw to first to get Preston Wilson for the second out in
the eighth inning.
But the real story was Lowry (1-0), who lasted just 1 1/3 innings in his
season debut -- the Giants' home opener -- before leaving with a strained
right oblique (side) muscle.
Making his first appearance since then, the 25-year-old lefty was effective
enough in the early innings, then got stronger as the game wore on.
The Astros reached Lowry for a run in the first inning after a two-out walk,
an infield single and a run-scoring grounder by Wilson that snuck between
Feliz at third and Omar Vizquel at short.
The Giants answered in the bottom half when Randy Winn led off with a single
and eventually came home on Feliz's single.
San Francisco then took a 2-1 lead in the second when Lowry laid down a
sacrifice bunt but Oswalt, trying to get the lead runner at third, threw the
ball into left field.
Houston answered with a run in the third, but never again truly threatened
Lowry, who retired 10 of the final 11 batters he faced.
"I felt like I got my second, third, fourth pitch coming out a little better,"
Lowry said of getting stronger as the game wore on. "I started out with my
fastball and then started mixing in my curve a little bit."
He also made good use of his money pitch, a tantalizing off-off-offspeed pitch
that almost crawls up to the plate.
"His changeup was really slow and it was difficult to lay off of," said
Astros third baseman Morgan Ensberg, whose infield single was one of the seven
hits Lowry gave up in seven innings.
"The key was him not giving up too many early runs and giving us a shot at
playing some offense," said Alou.
The Giants delivered on that chance in the fifth inning, when they sent 10 men
to the plate and chased Oswalt from the game with six of the first seven
batters reaching base, and all of them hitting the ball hard.
There were triples from Winn and Sweeney, the Feliz home run, and singles from
Todd Greene and Lance Niekro.
That Niekro hit drove in the final Giants run, and sent Oswalt packing.
"He's a good pitcher," Feliz said of Oswalt. "It just wasn't his day. Not
every day is going to be your day."
Monday was Lowry's day, and he left after seven innings, mostly because Alou
didn't want to push the pitcher too hard in his first game back.
"I felt great, I felt strong all the way through," Lowry said. "Mentally, it
felt really good, all that hard work I put in with Stan Conte and the training
staff paid off."
That work, Lowry said, had nothing to do with changing his mechanics to avoid
another injury like the one that sidelined him for almost all of April.
"My side, it's not even something I think about," he said. "I just stick with
what I know, with what got me here."
Lowry's victory didn't come without a few scares. First, Winn and Kevin
Frandsen both left the game after the fifth inning. Winn fouled a ball off his
left leg, just below the knee, in his second at-bat of that inning, and
Frandsen had tweaked a muscle in his side before flying out to center earlier
that inning.
Both players say they expect to play Tuesday, opinions seconded by Alou.
The final scare came in the ninth.
Jeremy Accardo relieved Lowry and worked a quick eighth, then got two more
fast outs in the ninth.
But the Astros chase Accardo with a pinch-hit single by Orlando Palmeiro and
an RBI double by Craig Biggio, then Mike Lamb hit a two-run, pinch-hit homer
off Tim Worrell.
Armando Benitez then came on and got Lance Berkman to ground out to first to
pick up his second save this year.
Tony Kuttner is a contributor to MLB.com This story was not subject to the
approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
--
誠泰COBRAS是王道!!!
17李明進 34楊騏嘉 11林恩宇 15蔡士勤 18許竹見 42陳家鴻 43張賢智 35楊睿智
12郭銘仁 28王傳家 55謝佳賢 25丘昌榮 13鄧蒔陽 65吳昭輝 85周思齊 3施翔凱
53陳克帆 1黃高俊 24莊景賀 5黃仕豪 33陳致鵬 22翁再生 2賈西亞 29費南德茲
69塔尼 67吳復連
COBRAS COBRAS YA YA YA!
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 140.116.110.92
SFGiants 近期熱門文章
PTT體育區 即時熱門文章
