Rays' Brandon Lowe Hoping to Avoid Injured List With Foot Injury

TAMPA, Fla. — Brandon Lowe left a game on July 6 with a muscle strain in his side, and it landed him on the injured list at the worst possible time. For the second time in his career, he was forced to miss playing in the All-Star Game because of an injury.

Out of the break, the Tampa Bay second baseman was activated for Friday night's game against the Baltimore Orioles. He had a hit in the 11-1 win, but didn't feel right leaving the game, and the pain in his foot was so bad that he had to beg out of Saturday's game before it was over.

Lowe has plantar fasciitis, and he's not happy about it. He's not in the lineup Monday night when the Rays resume their homestand against the Chicago White, and is day-to-day. He doesn't think the foot injury will require another trip to the IL, and he's doing everything he can to get back out on the field.

"I felt it Friday after the game walking to get my son. We’re 100 games into a season and lot of things hurt, so I just brushed it off,'' Lowe said Monday afternoon in the Rays' clubhouse. "I played Saturday with it, and it hurt as well, and right before my last at bat, I told (Rays manager Kevin Cash) that I was getting to the point that I wasn’t going to be able to run very well here soon.

“I’ve never had this before. I don’t know where it came from, don’t know how it happened. I just know that I take the word of the doctors that have seen it and the images that we’ve gotten and trust that it’s not going to be a big deal. Hopefully the medicine kicks in and does what it’s supposed to do, and I wake up one morning and it’s gone.'' 

Lowe has played 86 games so far this season, and is hitting .269 with 19 home runs and 50 RBIs. He was injury-free all year until the side injury, so having a second physical problem so soon is beyond frustrating, he said. Jose Caballero had to come in to replace him on Saturday.

“I can’t really put into words what I’m feeling (with the level of frustration). I can tell you how bad it feels to watch a guy come in to replace you,'' He said. "I’m really thankful that Caby got on base and stole some bases as well. That made things a little bit easier, and hopefully our boys can go out and take care of business (Monday night) and not make me feel any worse and that they won’t even need me.

“I’m like a day removed from the game I came out of, it’s still not perfect but we’re doing everything we can to get this taken care of. Hopefully I won’t miss very much time at all. I’m going right back in the training room when I finish here. Anything I can do to have a positive impact., we’re going to do it and see if it works. I don’t know how it happened, but we’re going to do whatever were can to make it go away.''

Lowe wants to get back on the field quickly but he also knows he's not going to do anything to hurt the team if he's not 100 percent.

“Running, it’s the big problem with it. I owe these guys in the clubhouse 100 percent,'' Lowe said. "If I’m out there and I’m timid to take a hard step, or timid to run, or the range in the field goes down, the coverage that these guys on the mound deserve. And then, God forbid, there’s a first and third with one out and I roll over and can’t get out of a double play, it’s just one of those things where it doesn’t make sense for me to push it. 

“I’ve also been down the path of the altered gate and trying to run through it and wound up tearing my quad, so I’m trying to find any way to get this to go away and not have to alter anything that might lead to another injury. 

Lowe isn't a patient person by nature, but patience will be required here. Hopefully, he said, it's just a few days and a stint on the injured list can be avoided.

"We’ll just take it day by day and hopefully it clears up quick. I don’t think 10 days in necessary,'' Lowe said. "I’ve talked to the doctors and the way they talked about it, it’s going to be a couple days type of thing.

"There’s something in there that’s pissed off and it’s flared up. We just need to give it time to get it out of there.’’  

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