Lowe steps forward

Mark Lowe was on his way to becoming the Seattle Mariners’ feel-good story of 2007 when something ruined it.

Lowe’s right arm was killing him.

About a year after major surgery to repair a cartilage defect in his throwing elbow, Lowe returned to the Mariners in late July bent on reclaiming his place in the bullpen as a much-needed 97-mph-throwing reliever.

Then the pain returned to Lowe’s elbow.

“I couldn’t even pick up a ball the next day,” he said.

In the 10 weeks since he threw his last pitch for the Mariners, Lowe endured a period of compete rest, then rehab and a throwing program to rebuild strength in the elbow. Through most of that process, there was no guarantee he would avoid needing another surgery.

This week, however, Lowe appears to have cleared his hurdles.

He threw a simulated game on Monday at the Mariners’ training complex in Peoria, Ariz., and was cleared Tuesday to take part in a normal offseason workout regimen.

Thursday, the Mariners activated him from the disabled list. That essentially was a formality because players can’t be on the DL in the offseason, but for Lowe it represented another step forward.

“Finally,” he said. “I’m going to do all kinds of things I didn’t get to do the last two years.”

He’ll return to his family home near Houston and go hunting and fishing for a few weeks in November and December. Then he’ll come back to Peoria and prepare to have a presence on the 2008 Mariners.

With Brandon Morrow likely to move from the bullpen into a starting role, the M’s could use a healthy, hard-throwing Lowe in the late innings.

Finally.

“It was a tough year for me,” said Lowe, who admits he tried to pitch through the pain he was feeling after he came back this year. “I always want to be out there whether I feel good or not. It’s one of those things where you have to suck it up and do it. But I learned a lot about letting them know if I don’t feel good.”

The Mariners optioned him to Class AAA Tacoma in early August, and it wasn’t long before he was dealing with doctors again. They gave him choices _ take a cortisone injection and try to return before the end of the season, or take it slow and ensure he would be healthy when spring training begins in February.

“If I did that (cortisone), it could weaken the cartilage,” he said. “We’d just done the major surgery to regenerate the cartilage foundation. So we decided to give it time to rest.”

Lowe returned to his offseason home in Peoria and reported daily to the Mariners’ facility.

“For the first three weeks, I basically came in and stretched every day,” he said. “I didn’t lift or do anything at all that would put pressure on the elbow. Basically, we gave it a big rest.”

From there he performed exercises to strengthen his arm, then began a throwing program, playing catch from 60 feet and slowly increasing to 120, then progressing to the bullpen mound.

He threw three bullpen sessions, then the simulated game on Monday.

“Biggest thing for me was making sure I felt good the day after my pens and after the simulated game,” he said. “Everything is good. I’m ready to go.”

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