Noah Lowry

Shining Star in a Dismal Season

The 2007 baseball season hasn't been good to the San Francisco Giants. Even in this dismal year, there is one shining star ... Noah Lowry. Lowry has managed to win over a dozen games, which is quite an accomplishment for the '07 Giants. I can't wait to see what the future has in store for this young pitcher!

Noah Lowry at a Glance

Noah Ryan Lowry (born October 10 1980 in ) is a left-handed starting pitcher for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball.

With only average velocity on his fastball, Lowry was not widely regarded as a top prospect, and did not make Baseball America's list of the team's 10 best prospects in either 2003 or 2004. However, he has found quick success in the Major Leagues, largely thanks to his changeup, which has been ranked among the National League's best. He also throws a curveball and a slider.

Lowry, who bats right-handed, is also known as one of the better hitting pitchers in the Nati...

read the rest of the Wikipedia article

Notes: Adrenaline gets to Lowry

02/28/2008 8:11 PM ET
By Chris Haft / MLB.com

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Noah Lowry's 97 regular-season starts since Aug. 1, 2004, are the most by a Giant in that stretch. But that didn't prevent the left-hander from feeling antsy about Thursday's seemingly insignificant outing in the Giants' Cactus League opener against the Chicago Cubs.

"Your first time out there, your adrenaline's going," said Lowry, whose rocky performance set the tone in the Giants' 12-6 loss. "I didn't do a very good job of containing that."

The amped-up Lowry struggled to harness his timing and rhythm -- key elements for the finesse pitcher he is. As a result, Lowry displayed anything but finesse, allowing three runs and two hits in 1 1/3 innings. He walked three, threw a wild pitch (one of two deliveries he fired to the backstop on the fly) and hit Kosuke Fukodome with the first Major League pitch the Cubs right fielder saw. Of Lowry's 35 pitches, only 15 were strikes.

The best development for Lowry was emerging pain-free. He confessed to feeling mildly anxious about possible lingering effects of the left forearm stiffness that forced him to miss last September.

"You never know what's going to happen," Lowry said. "You can put in all the work you want and hope for the best until you go out there. If you go at game speed and you come out and it feels good and it's good between innings, that's a good feeling."

Obviously, it wasn't all good for the Giants' projected No. 3 starter.

"With that being said, the outing for me stunk," he said. "I was terrible out there."

Right-hander Kevin Correia, who allowed five third-inning runs, was just as self-critical.

"The main thing in Spring Training is to get better each time out. That's going to make it pretty easy to do a little better next time, I'm sure," he said.

But Correia wasn't worried about falling behind Jonathan Sanchez in the competition for the No. 5 starting spot.

"I'm just looking to get ready for the season," Correia said. "I know I'm going to throw the ball well once we get going. It wasn't a great outing, obviously, but it doesn't get any earlier than this."