Lowe has successful season

Published 9:14 pm Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Major League Baseball’s regular season ended with the Tampa Bay Rays missing out on the playoffs, but a Suffolk native on the team can look back on the season with satisfaction.

Nansemond River High School graduate Brandon Lowe was called up to the team in August from the Triple-A affiliate Durham Bulls.

He ended up playing 43 games with the Rays. In those 43 games, he had 129 at-bats, which resulted in 30 hits, 16 runs, 25 RBIs and six home runs. He started most of the games he played in the infield and was an instant contributor for the Rays.

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In the minors, Lowe had a red-hot streak at the plate. When he got to the majors, it took him a little while to get in the groove, but once he did, the rest was history.

“It was a great experience,” Lowe said about his time in the majors this season. “I got to learn from some great players and coaches. Hopefully, I can incorporate what I learned this year into my game next year.”

The Suffolk native went 0-19 before he got his first hit this season. The hit came in a win against the New York Yankees. In that game, he ended up with two RBIs to go along with two hits. Lowe joked that his first hit was “selfishly” his favorite moment of the season. It wasn’t that the moment was too big for him when he got called up; he just felt he was doing too much to make something happen. Once he got the first hit, he settled in.

“The first hit would probably be my favorite one,” he said. “The game didn’t speed up too much. It was more of me trying to do too much at the plate. But we had a ton of walk-offs while I was there, and those are incredible to be a part of as well.”

This offseason, Lowe wants to continue to improve in every way that he can. He felt good about his play this season, but he knows there is always room for improvement and is looking forward to getting better. He will spend most of his time in Nashville training and getting ready for next season.

At Nansemond River High School, Lowe was an All-District, All-Region and All-State player. As a senior, he was a district and region Player of the Year before going on to play at the University of Maryland.