Lowther on changed off-day plans and recent improvement

Zac Lowther and his family made plans for Memorial Day. Just relax on the beach, enjoy the break that minor league players receive on Mondays.

Then came the phone call at 11 a.m. from Triple-A Norfolk pitching coach Justin Ramsey.

“Normally,” Lowther said, “he’s not the one to call me.”

Lowther was told to get on a flight to Baltimore. The beach would have to wait for another morning.

Bags were packed for Lowther, his wife Brianna and 18-month-old daughter Isabelle. Not the stuff they’d take to the shore.

“It kind of worked out well,” he said.

“My parents just left, so they were basically passing Baltimore when we found out, so they ended up driving home, but it was kind of ironic.”

Lowther is in the bullpen tonight and capable of backing up starter Bryan Baker, who isn’t expected to go more than two innings unless he’s really economical with his pitches.

“It was just doing the math,” Lowther said. “Spenser (Watkins) is still out with his (bruised) arm, and they needed guys after this five-game series in Boston. I know what I’m here for is innings, and today was supposed to be a throw day for me anyway, so it kind of lined up perfectly.”

The numbers don’t leave a favorable impression. Lowther, who turned 26 in April, posted an 8.26 ERA and 1.941 WHIP in eight games with Norfolk. But his last start was encouraging, with two runs allowed in five innings.

“I’m definitely moving in the right direction,” he said. “There’s been more positives than negatives in probably the last three or four starts. Numbers might not match up for me, but I was all out of whack, just trying to be someone I wasn’t. Once I got back to the process of what I did when I was good, then the results started to get better and better. But I’m still working toward getting to where I was last year toward the end of the year. I was real happy with where I was last year, so just trying to build off that.”

Lowther had a 6.67 ERA and 1.652 WHIP in 10 games (six starts) with the Orioles in his first major league exposure, but he held the Royals to one run in six innings on Sept. 6, shut out the Rangers over five innings on Sept. 23 and held the Red Sox to one earned run in five innings in his final appearance.

Why couldn’t Lowther sustain that momentum in 2022, or at least get back to being the prospect with the 2.55 ERA and 154 strikeouts in 148 innings with Double-A Bowie in 2019? Who didn’t need a plus-fastball?

“I was just trying to do too much, be a pitcher I wasn’t,” he said. “I was trying to be a power pitcher, throwing where my velo doesn’t match up and then I’m throwing my body and mechanics out of whack. Just got back to staying within myself and pitching with the stuff I know gets guys out. Just try to not be too cute and just attack guys.

“In spring I was all around the zone but never in it. Just tried to get back there, and once I got there, expanding on how to get guys out better and get them out quicker, stop wasting pitches, that kind of stuff.”

Hyde mentioned today that Lowther “threw well” in his last start. But reliever Bryan Baker gets first dibs at the Mariners.

“I could go a number of different ways in the game today,” Hyde said. “We’re going to open with Baker and might do what we did in St. Louis, or might go to Zac. We’ll see. But we wanted to add a guy who’s at least built up to give us some innings.”

Baker had an edge over other candidates in the ‘pen because he didn’t pitch yesterday.

“Also, the job he did in St. Louis,” Hyde said. “It was kind of a, ‘Let’s see what happens’ kind of game and he was great, pitching into the third inning and throwing a ton of strikes and facing a really good lineup in St. Louis in a tough, hot day game. Since he’s done it before, we decided to do it again.”

With a win tonight, the Orioles will finish 15-15 in May for their first non-losing month since going 12-12 in July 2019.

Tyler Wells is among 10 pitchers in major league history to walk seven batters or fewer in his first 10
career starts in a minimum 20 innings.

Ryan Mountcastle became the first Oriole yesterday to score four runs in a game since Chris Davis on May 20, 2014 in Pittsburgh.

Terrin Vavra is beginning his progression tonight with high Single-A Aberdeen. He’s playing center field and batting second.

Vavra injured his hamstring on April 20 while playing for Norfolk.

For the Mariners
Jesse Winkler DH
Ty France 1B
Julio Rodríguez CF
J.P. Crawford SS
Eugenio Suárez 3B
Adam Frazier 2B
Dylan Moore LF
Taylor Trammel RF
Cal Raleigh C

George Kirby RHP