CHICAGO \u2014 The Rays saw up close what damage Brandon Lowe could do for the 745 games and nearly 3,000 plate appearances he had in their uniform.<\/p>\n
Friday, for the first time when it counts, they will be on the other side, trying to cool the hot start Lowe has had since joining the Pirates following a December trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not surprised by the start,\u201d Rays manager Kevin Cash said. \u201cWe saw it for (eight) years, what he\u2019s capable of doing, It\u2019ll be very good to see him. That team has played very, very well, but certainly with Brandon, he holds a pretty special place in a lot of people\u2019s minds here in this organization, helped us win a lot of ballgames.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lowe, the fifth-longest-serving Ray with seven years and 57 days of service time, left ranked among the franchise leaders in numerous categories including homers (157, third); runs (415, sixth); extra-base hits (295, sixth) and doubles (126, eighth). His 745 games played were eighth most.<\/p>\n
The Rays in early November picked up Lowe\u2019s $11.5 million option for this season, then six weeks later traded him to the Pirates, with outfielder Jake Mangum and reliever Mason Montgomery, for two prospects. Outfielder Jacob Melton is expected to help at some point this season, while pitcher Anderson Brito is a few years away.<\/p>\n
Lowe has done well for the National League Central co-leading Pirates, hitting .262 with seven homers, 16 RBIs and a .992 OPS through Thursday.<\/p>\n
Lefty Shane McClanahan, who starts Sunday, acknowledged it was odd when the Rays saw Lowe in a different uniform during exhibitions but knows that is just part of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn spring training it was weird, but I\u2019m happy for him and all the success he\u2019s continued to have,\u201d McClanahan said. \u201cI created a good friendship with him, and I\u2019m excited to see him.\u201d<\/p>\n
And if McClanahan ends up facing Lowe?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s business,\u201d he said. \u201cStrictly business. He knows that. He feels the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 The Rays saw up close what damage Brandon Lowe could do for the 745 games and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2377],"tags":[5,4,297,76070,185,2550,68,2551,2549],"class_list":{"0":"post-677336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-rays","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-rays","11":"tag-social-sports","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tampa-bay","14":"tag-tampa-bay-rays","15":"tag-tampabay","16":"tag-tampabayrays"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116417646101329175","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}