Derek Lowe has become the 135th player from the 2004 Red Sox to get picked up by the Yankees, joining Mark Bellhorn, Mike Myers, Alan Embree, some guy named Damon, “Little” Bobby Coleman, Harpo Stax, Hal Ketchum III, Robot Barnstable and several others in that not-so-exclusive club.
I say good for Lowe. I always dug the guy during his Boston tenure and while his heroics in the 2004 postseason will always be a highlight, his final inning of work against the A’s in the 2003 ALDS is still a thing of beauty.
This was one of the most thrilling, grind-yer-nuts-on-the-cheese-grater conclusions to a Sox playoff series. We were holding on to a measly one run lead and the A’s had the bases loaded, but Derek Lowe, who lost Game One of the series on a crazy-ass squeeze play, seemed remarkably poised, confident in his skills and likely inspired by Tek’s visit to the mound, which I’m sure went something like this:
Tek: You know that pitch you just threw to Melhuse?
Lowe: Well, yeah, but I’ve got–
Tek: Never mind that shit. You know that pitch you struck out Melhuse with?
Lowe: Yeah.
Tek: Throw the same one.
Lowe: You sure?
Tek: The exact. same. f@#king. pitch.
Lowe: O–okay.
And just like that, Lowe struck out Terrance Long with an absolutely filthy pitch that started inside and curved out gorgeously over the plate. Game over. Cue chaos. But, of course, there was more to the tale. Watch Lowe’s motions after that final out. Miguel Tejada swears it was an obscene gesture at the Oakland bench. And, yeah, it was. But as I’ve said before, it’s your basic “bite my tweeter” maneuver; totally acceptable considering the stakes involved.
