Considering where he was a year and a half ago — with his right arm in a sling and doctors saying he might not pitch again — the mound was Mark Lowe’s high point Monday.
He faced only one hitter, getting a grounder to end the top of the eighth with the Mariners leading by three runs, but the importance wasn’t lost on the 24-year-old right-hander.
“It’s definitely a blessing to be out there,” Lowe said.
A week after the 2006 season, he had surgery to repair a defect in the cartilage in his elbow. Doctors weren’t sure Lowe would pitch again at this level, and the next year was an adventure in his efforts to come back.
He needed a cleanup operation a year ago at spring training and spent much of the summer working his way back. He made four relief appearances for the Mariners, only to be shut down when the elbow simply wasn’t ready.
Lowe pitched in the instructional league last fall, continued to build his strength during the winter and, at spring training, showed everyone that he’s not a rehab patient anymore. The Mariners weren’t fully convinced of that until late March when he pitched back-to-back games and the arm recovered well.
“That’s when I felt like I’m back to where I was, and I felt maybe even better the second day,” he said.
Lowe’s presence is important because the Mariners will spend at least a couple of weeks without hard-throwing reliever Brandon Morrow, who suffered a sore shoulder during spring training. Morrow is starting the season at Class AA West Tennessee.
He and Lowe would become an enticing late-inning tandem, both capable of throwing in the mid to upper 90 mph range.
“It’s sure nice having Lowe out there,” manager John McLaren said. “I closed my eyes a couple of times and thought to myself how nice it will be when Morrow comes back. It’s going to be very nice having two power arms out there.”
Don’t run: For all he did to create the Mariners’ two-run rally in the sixth inning and drive home two in the seventh, Jose Lopez left his McLaren shaking his head.’
After his double in the seventh, Lopez tried to steal third with one out and Raul Ibanez at the plate. He was thrown out by a wide margin.
“I want to open the game up a little bit, but that wasn’t quite the situation I had in mind,” McLaren said. “I know where Jose’s coming from, but it wasn’t a situation where we wanted him to go. We do want to be aggressive, but with a left-handed hitter up, not there.”
Lopez heard from McLaren about it on the bench and said he learned his lesson.
“I was playing aggressive,” he said. “My fault.”
Of note: For one game, the Mariners’ emphasis on working the ball-strike count was a success, with seven walks compared with six hits. Last year, the had more walks than hits in only two games. … The crowd of 45,334 was the ninth largest in Mariners history. … McLaren said the Mariners have not heard from pitcher Chris Reitsma, who left the Mariners and drove back to his home near Calgary after they told him last week that he would start the season in the minor leagues in order to build arm strength. … Broadcaster Dave Niehaus, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch, made sure he didn’t air mail it to the backstop like he did before the first game at Safeco Field in 1999. Niehaus bounced this one to catcher Jamie Burke. … Only minutes after the Safeco Field roof opened to a dramatic musical interlude before Monday’s game, it rolled overhead when rain began falling. At one point during the game, snow and hail were blowing into the open end of the stadium. … Adam Jones, traded to the Orioles in the Erik Bedard deal, went 0-for-3 with a strikeout in Baltimore’s opening loss to Tampa Bay.
Kirby Arnold, Herald Writer
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