Lowe has pow-wow with press
Derek Lowe, pull up a couch.
Mired in a slump that shows in his face as much as his stats, the Red Sox right-hander called reporters to his locker before Thursday’s game against Oakland to ask why his struggles are pinned on mental shortcomings instead of just poor pitching.
“Why is it when I pitch bad, I’m a mental reject. When everybody else pitches bad, they just pitched bad?” he asked the group of about two dozen reporters.
He harshly criticized his performance on the mound, but said it was a problem with mechanics, not his mind.
As exuberant as he can be after a key strikeout, Lowe is also known to hang his head when something goes wrong. And things have been going wrong a lot this year.
A future free agent who’s thrown a no-hitter, Lowe is 6-8 with a 6.02 ERA this season. He has allowed 0-3 with a 9.37 ERA in his last three starts.
While admitting he has pitched awfully, what has bothered Lowe is the way fans and reporters — and his last four managers — believe he gets so upset when things go wrong that he allows his problems to snowball.
He appeared to be cruising against the Braves on Sunday before an infield hit was followed by a four-pitch walk and soon four consecutive hits, including a homer that chased him from the game.
“That tag has been put on me. But when I do have success, is it luck?” Lowe said.
“That’s me. It doesn’t affect the next pitch,” he said, referring to the way he shows emotion on the mound. “I know myself. It doesn’t affect the next pitch.”
Vazquez, Lo Duca All-Star replacements
New York Yankees pitcher Javier Vazquez and Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Paul Lo Duca were added to the All-Star teams as replacements for injured players.
Vazquez takes the spot of Oakland Athletics right-hander Tim Hudson, giving New York eight players on the 32-man A.L. squad.
Hudson is on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left oblique muscle.
Lo Duca replaces Cincinnati Reds first baseman Sean Casey, on the DL with a strained right calf.
• Barry Bonds of the Giants and Hank Blalock of the Rangers were added to next week’s All-Star Home Run Derby, filling out the field of eight competitors.
Bonds joins Philadelphia’s Jim Thome, Cincinnati’s Ken Griffey Jr. and the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa in representing the National League Monday in Houston.
The A.L. players participating are Blalock, New York’s Jason Giambi, Boston’s David Ortiz and Baltimore’s Rafael Palmeiro.
Japan owners reject World Cup
Japan’s owners rejected a plan to hold the first baseball World Cup in the United States next year.
The owners do not want Major League Baseball in charge of the event and would prefer the International Baseball Federation, an official in the Japanese commissioner’s office, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press.
That could leave major league All-Stars such as Hideki Matsui of the New York Yankees and Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners without a chance to play for their country in the World Cup.
Mets sign Cuban defector
Cuban right-hander Alain Soler soon will be in the Mets organization, but it would be a shock to see him make a start for the Mets this season.
Soler, believed to be 24, has agreed to a three-year deal pending a physical, which is scheduled for the next few days in the Dominican Republic, where Soler took up residence after defecting from Cuba in November.
But a Mets official said Soler’s arrival in the United States could take up to two weeks from the time he signs and that even under the most ideal circumstances, he won’t have an impact on the team this season.