Brandon Lowe

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Brandon Norman Lowe

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Biographical Information[edit]

Brandon Lowe was the American League Rookie of the Month in April 2019, as he hit .289 with 6 home runs and 17 RBis while playing second base. He had made his major league debut with the Tampa Bay Rays towards the end of the 2018 season, and had barely managed to maintain his rookie eligibility, as he he hit .233 in 43 games. He was considered a top prospect, having been named the Player of the Year in the Florida State League in 2017, when he was with the Charlotte Stone Crabs. He made his major league debut towards the end of the 2018 season, hitting .233 in 43 games.

In 2019 he was named to the All-Star team for the first time as a replacement for the injured Tommy La Stella, but had to be replaced himself, by Gleyber Torres, when he bruised a shin by fouling a ball off his leg. He hit .270 in 82 games, with 17 homers and 51 RBIs and finished third in the voting for the 2019 American League Rookie of the Year Award (he was barely eligible for the award, missing the cut-off by only a couple of days). He played in the postseason for the first time that year, but was blanked in the Wild Card Game and went 4 for 16 with a double and a homer in Tampa's loss to the Houston Astros in the Division Series. He was one of the Rays' best players when they reached the World Series in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. He finished 8th in the voting for the 2020 American League Most Valuable Player Award as he batted .269 and slugged .554 in 56 games, with 14 homers and 37 RBIs. His OPS+ of 154 reflects how good those numbers were. However, he slumped badly in the postseason, including going 0-for-18 in the Rays' hard-fought win over the New York Yankees in the Division Series. He hit .154 in the ALCS and .125 in the World Series, which the Rays lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, although he did pop the occasional long ball: four of his seven hits over the two series were homers.

On October 2, 2021, he had the first three-homer game of his career, in a 12-2 demolition of the Yankees. That was the Rays' 110th win that season, the first time reaching the century mark in franchise history. His 7 RBIs and 12 total bases that day tied team records. With 39 homers and 99 RBIs for the season, he had one more game to reach two big milestones for the first time, all the more remarkable since he had started the year very slowly. After 53 games on June 2nd, he was hitting just .188 with 9 homers before turning on the jets for the final four months of the regular season. He was unable to get either his 40th homer or 100th RBI in his final game, finishing at .247 with 39 homers and 99 RBIs, to go along with 97 runs and an OPS+ of 140. He once again received MVP consideration finishing 10th in the voting. However, he had another underwhelming postseason as the Rays were upset by the Boston Red Sox at the Division Series stage and he went 0 for 18 with no walks and 9 strikeouts. His 2022 season was then plagued by injuries, limiting him to 65 games, during which he hit .221 with 8 homers and 25 RBIs. His OPS+ of 103 was the lowest of his career thus far, and he was unavailable for the postseason, from which the Rays made another quick exit, losing to the Cleveland Guardians in the Wild Card Series.

The Rays had a great start to the 2023 season, winning their first 11 games and setting al sorts of records for most homers and best run differential during that stretch. He was at the center of things, homering in four consecutive games from April 8-11 and driving in 10 runs over that span after starting slowly. His 8th-inning solo homer on April 10th against the Boston Red Sox proved to be the only run of the game in what was the only close game of the 11-game streak. Otherwise, the Rays were blowing opponents away, slamming a record-tying 29 homers in the 11 games.

Notable Achievements[edit]

Further Reading[edit]

  • Adam Berry: "How the Lowes finally became parents -- and how they're already giving back", mlb.com, May 13, 2023. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

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