| 15 April 2009
On Sunday, Lowrie was sent home from the West Coast trip after admitting that his wrist - which limited him in the second half of last season - had been bothering him for 2 1/2 weeks.
Lowrie will visit Dr. Tom Graham, a noted hand specialist, today in Baltimore to have his ailing wrist examined further. Three options will be discussed: further injections and rehab, which would sideline the shortstop for a month; a minor surgical procedure in which a bone would be removed, requiring approximately six weeks of recovery time; and a more complicated surgery that likely would end Lowrie's 2009 season.
"(Surgery is) on the table," Lowrie said yesterday from Boston. "It's not necessarily the answer, but it might be. But it could be that cortisone in a different spot and (more) rehab is a different solution."
Lowrie underwent an X-ray and MRI on Monday, and, "they showed pretty much the same thing as last year."
A strength test revealed he had just 65 percent strength in the left hand compared with his right. The number represented the same deficiency measured at the end of last season, and was down sharply from earlier in the spring, when the left hand had measured at 90 percent of the right, stronger hand.
After a blistering spring in which he hit .343 and slugged .657 with three homers and eight doubles, Lowrie was just 1-for-18 (.056) with eight strikeouts in the season's first week.
"I'm not looking for excuses (for the performance) at the plate," Lowrie said, "but every day I went into the cage, there was never any consistency. I think I was also looking for something mechanically that was wrong . . . and really, it was the strength in my wrist."
After heading into spring training with "too many infielders," Julio Lugo and Jed Lowrie have both landed on the DL. Gil Velazquez was called up this weekend to help Nick Green handle the infield and the Red Sox claimed infielder Travis Denker off of waivers from San Diego and optioned him to Pawtucket.
Lugo has been rehabbing his right knee and will DH in an extended spring training game today with the hopes of playing in the field this weekend. He will be evaluated on Monday and could start a rehab stint in Pawtucket next week... if all goies well this week.
Bottom Line: Things couldn't be much worse for the Sox right now... if Lowrie doesn't opt ofthe season ending surgery, it could be a long and frustrating season at short stop here in Boston.
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