Round Rock works wonders for Mark Lowe

On April 18, Mark Lowe was optioned to Triple-A Round Rock. The veteran reliever could have moped about his demotion but also knew he was heading to the Rangers' top minor league affiliate with a purpose. "It just gives you an opportunity to work on stuff in a non-stress situation. Results don't really matter," Lowe said. "Regardless of how you do the night before, you're going to get in there the next day. I threw six times in 11 days." In six games out of the Express bullpen, he was 1-0 with a 2.89 ERA. He had 13 strikeouts and only four walks in 9 13 innings of work. Even though he knew heading south was part of a bigger plan on the Rangers' part, that didn't make it any easier to take at least initially. "I did my best to stay as positive as I could. I wanted to pitch and I wasn't happy with sitting around and throwing four times in a month like I did in April," Lowe said. "So I took a positive outlook and knew it gave me a chance to go there and work." Speaking of April, the left-handed reliever from Houston had made four appearances and had an ERA of 13.50 when he headed to the Pacific Coast League. Ranger manager Ron Washington and Mike Maddux told him his stay in the PCL would be relatively short, which made the news a bit easier to take. "They said we don't know an exact timetable of when it's going to be but we expect you to be here for us in the late innings. That's the reason we got you over here," Lowe said. He returned to Arlington on May 4 and since then, he has clearly been a different and much more effective pitcher, going 2-2 an lowering his ERA to 4.18 in 28 appearances. "Mike Maddux and Andy Hawkins were trying to work with him on something off speed, his curveball. He's come back and he's put it in his repertoire," Washington said. "He's using it and is starting to hit his spot down and away with his fastball. Early in the year, his fastball was up in the zone and straight. Now he's starting to hit his spots down and away and starting to put some off speed in there. Now you just can't sit on his stuff. He's been effective. Right now, he's within himself locked in. I just hope he can continue getting work so he can maintain. He's done a great job. We knew he could. It was just a matter of getting work." Lowe definitely sees a huge difference in his performance compared to how he was throwing before his short stay in Round Rock. "All my pitches, I'm able to keep down and throw my fastball where I want to. It was all just one small mechanical adjustment," he said. "Ever since that adjustment, I've been right on." Before his recent stint in the PCL, it had been four years since he last pitched in the minors. While he made the most of his time in Round Rock, he admits it's great to be back with the Rangers. "My focus the whole off-season was to be here and succeed here. I'm at a point now where I have a lot of confidence going out," Lowe said. "I'm right where I want to be and I want the ball every single day. When you're not having success, you're kind of weary of having the ball because you don't know what's going to happen. I've been pretty consistent since I've been back and that keeps you wanting the ball." But Washington isn't the only one who has noticed the big difference in Lowe since his return. Starting catcher Yorvit Torrealba has also taken note and likes what he has seen. "What can you say? He's done really good. He's getting comfortable and his confidence is back where it needs to be," Torrealba said. "He's doing really well pounding the strike zone, something earlier in the year he wasn't able to do. Obviously, we know how hard he can throw. It was more about location than anything. Right now, he's on top of his game-pounding the strike zone really good, mixing it up with some sliders and good change-ups. He's definitely a different pitcher than we saw earlier in the year." For Lowe, getting to develop a close personal relationship with Torrealba is something he feels is starting to pay big dividends not just for him but for the Rangers as a whole. "No matter who it is, there is a time where you have to see each other enough times to know how to communicate when you're not talking to each other. When you're 60 feet away, you have to find a way to communicate," the Ranger reliever said. "I feel like I've got that with Yorvit. I don't feel like I ever got that with Bengie Molina last year because I wasn't out there enough. But I've thrown to him Torrealba enough now that we can communicate with each other. We kind of know what we want to do and that makes a big difference." And since the one-year mark of him being acquired from Seattle as part of the Cliff Lee deal recently passed, he took some time to reflect on his first year as a Ranger. "We probably won more games in one year than four in Seattle. It's a different way of baseball here. We expect to win and if you're not producing, somebody will be put in there that will. I think that's the way baseball should be played," Lowe said. "From top to bottom, they want to win here. It was different from where I came from for the last four and a half years. It's fun. It's more pressure as a player but it makes you better when you get through all that." During this interview, he was sporting a black t-shirt with the words "Running Sucks" in yellow lettering. His choice of attire carries with it an interesting story. It seems veteran reliever Darren Oliver came up with the shirts at the start of the 2011 season kind of as a playful shot at the club's strength and conditioning coach, Jose Vazquez. "It's kind of a remark to our strength coach, Jose, who likes to make us run. We just let him know we don't like it very much," Lowe said. "We all have them the shirts, all the relievers. We all wear them every day when we're at home."