Josh Lowe ended an 0-for-24 skid with a bunt single in his first at-bat Saturday in Toronto, a small break in a stretch that had dragged his average to.144 with a.471 OPS before the game. La angels have kept running him out regularly against right-handed pitchers, and that makes every plate appearance part of the evaluation now.
Josh Lowe in Toronto
Lowe said, "I don’t think I’m far away." He entered Saturday trying to stop a slide that had become hard to ignore, then opened the game with the kind of contact that at least stopped the empty at-bat count.
"Put it this way: Mentally every time I go to the box, I feel like I expect myself to get a hit," Lowe said. "I feel like I’m seeing the ball well," he added, before describing his swing as "a tick off" and pointing to foul balls on pitches over the heart of the plate.
That is the same player the Angels acquired in a three-way trade last winter, and it is not the version they expected after his.835 OPS in 2023. His.670 OPS across the two injury-plagued seasons since then is the backdrop to the current slump, and he also missed time in spring training with an oblique injury.
Kurt Suzuki and the lineup
Kurt Suzuki has kept starting Lowe at the bottom of the order against almost all right-handed pitchers, even as the numbers have slipped. "He’s pressing, for sure," Suzuki said. "He’s kind of in-between a lot of pitches. It doesn’t make it any easier when you’re facing Dylan Cease. He’s obviously searching for something that feels good to him. But all it takes is one – one swing, one at-bat – to make something click. We feel like he’s close. His (batting practice) has been tremendous."
That belief has to coexist with production that has not matched the role. The bunt single did not solve the slump, but it gave Lowe a first clean outcome after an 0-for-24 stretch and kept him from leaving Saturday with another empty line.
Mother’s Day and Lowe
Spring training also carried a heavier personal load. Lowe said his mother died after a years-long battle with cancer, and he said Mother’s Day is heavy on him because of that loss.
He said his family and wife help him stay level-headed, calling them the reason he keeps going and the people who remind him that the job is a blessing but not his entire life. For now, the practical question is whether the single in Toronto opens anything at the plate or just pauses a slump that has already pushed his role into sharper focus.
