June 17, 2004: Derek Lowe throws seven shutout innings in his best game of the season  

Derek Lowe was struggling a bit in 2004. Primarily a relief pitcher at the beginning of his career, the Boston Red Sox right-hander had led the American League with 42 saves in 2000. The Red Sox converted him to starting late in the 2001 season, and he had gone 21-8 (2.58 ERA) in 2002, placing third in the American League Cy Young Award voting. He had a good record in 2003, coming in at 17-7, but his ERA was nearly two runs higher at 4.57.

Through his first 10 starts in 2004, Lowe continued to struggle. After allowing five or more earned runs in three straight starts, his ERA was 6.84 on May 31. But he turned in two excellent starts after that, the second one when he scattered five hits and held the Los Angeles Dodgers scoreless for seven innings on June 11 at Fenway Park, a game won in the ninth, 2-1, on an RBI single by David Ortiz.

Lowe’s next start, on June 17 against the Colorado Rockies, built on his recent resurgence.

The starting pitcher for manager Clint Hurdle and the Rockies was right-hander Aaron Cook. He’d been 6-7 the two prior years combined and was 1-1 to this point in 2004. 

The Rockies were in last place in the National League West Division, 12 games behind the Dodgers. The Red Sox were second in the AL East, 5½ games behind the Yankees. This was the third game of Boston’s first-ever visit to Coors Field; the Red Sox had lost the first two, 6-3 and 7-6. This Thursday night game drew a large crowd of 40,088.    

Both pitchers had easy first innings, Cook getting a routine groundout and striking out the next two, while Lowe got three groundouts.

After Cook struck out Manny Ramírez in the top of the second, he gave up successive singles to Nomar Garciaparra and Trot Nixon and walked catcher Jason Varitek to load the bases. The Red Sox had been hitting only.188 with the bases loaded all season, but second baseman Pokey Reese singled up the middle, driving in two for a 2-0 Boston lead.

With one out in the second, Lowe gave up back-to-back singles to center fielder Jeromy Burnitz and left fielder Matt Holliday, but catcher Todd Greene hit into a 5-4-3 inning-ending double play.

Cook walked Ortiz with one out in the third but was bailed out by a double play. Lowe gave up another hit in Colorado’s half, a single by right fielder Luis Gonzalez.

With one out in the top of the fourth, Nixon doubled and Varitek walked, but the inning stalled when Reese and Lowe (batting for only the 22nd time in his big-league career) struck out. In the Rockies’ half, Lowe walked a batter, but three more groundouts were sufficient to close out the inning with the Red Sox still ahead by two runs.

Boston expanded its lead in the fifth. Center fielder Johnny Damon led off with a walk and stole second. Third baseman Mark Bellhorn struck out swinging, but Ortiz singled up the middle, scoring Damon, and the Red Sox led 3-0.

The first out of Colorado’s fifth came when Greene hit a fly ball to center field, the only out of the game recorded by a Red Sox outfielder while Lowe was throwing sinker after sinker. By game’s end, 17 of his 21 outs were on groundballs. Lowe then walked Gonzalez, but Mark Sweeney, pinch-hitting for Cook, struck out, on eight pitches. Another groundout followed. “He was just making guys hit his pitch,” said Cook afterward.1

The new Rockies pitcher in the sixth was another righty, Marc Kroon. Reese drew a walk but was the only Boston batter to reach base. In the bottom of the inning, Lowe issued his third walk, to first baseman Todd Helton, and gave up his fourth hit, a single by third baseman Vinny Castilla, but put up another scoreless inning, thanks to Ortiz—who registered 14 putouts in this game—handling three grounders to first unassisted.2

In the seventh, Colorado sent another veteran right-hander to the mound, Kevin Jarvis. For Jarvis, it was his first game for the Rockies. He had been released by the Seattle Mariners on May 6 and signed by the Rockies five days later. The seventh and eighth innings were rough for him.

The first batter he faced was Bellhorn, who walked. Swinging at the first pitch he saw, Ortiz homered to right field. Ramírez flied out, then Garciaparra tripled to deep left-center. Nomar was 3-for-5 in the game, with two runs scored. After an intentional walk to Nixon. Garciaparra scored on Varitek’s grounder to second base. It was now 6-0, Red Sox.

After the Rockies grounded out, drew a walk, and hit into a double play in the seventh, Jarvis was back on the mound. In the top of the eighth, Kevin Millar, pinch-hitting for Lowe, doubled to right-center. Damon doubled to right, Millar holding at third base. Bellhorn walked on four pitches. Ortiz then doubled to right field, driving in two runs.3 He finished the game 3-for-4 with five RBIs, at the time a career high.

Hurdle called on rookie Scott Dohmann to relieve Jarvis. There was still nobody out. Dave McCarty pinch-hit for Ramírez and on the first pitch hit a fly to center field, allowing Bellhorn to tag and score, the sixth run charged to Jarvis. He got two infield popups, sandwiched around a base on balls. The inning was over, but the Red Sox led 9-0.

Scott Williamson came on to pitch for Terry Francona’s Red Sox. There were several defensive moves, giving some more of the regulars a rest. Second baseman Aaron Miles hit a fly ball out to deep center, but the next two batters grounded out third to first.

Boston added two more runs in the top of the ninth, Dohmann still pitching. Reese singled. Millar struck out swinging. On the first pitch to him, Damon doubled to right field, Reese holding at third base. Bellhorn hit a ground-rule double to center field, driving in both baserunners. Fly outs by Cesar Crespo and McCarty ended the inning, giving the Rockies just the bottom of the ninth to try to overcome the 11-0 deficit.

Lenny DiNardo relieved Williamson. It was his 18th appearance of the season, without a win or a loss. He came into the game with a 3.92 ERA and departed with a 3.74 ERA. He gave up singles to Kit Pellow, who had replaced Castilla at first base, and to Charles Johnson, pinch-hitting for Dohmann, but in between had gotten a fly out. He then got Greene to pop up foul to third base and struck out Gonzalez.

The 11-0 final score was only the second time in almost six years that the Rockies had been shut out at Coors. They had been shut out 6-0 by Houston on September 18, 2003. The time before that had been on July 4, 1999, when they lost 11-0 to the Padres.

On June 25 Jarvis had his only other appearance tor Colorado, working one inning and allowing one hit but no runs. Jarvis was released on July 6 and signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates but remained at Triple A for the remainder of the season. His career continued through 2006 with brief stints for the Cardinals, Diamondbacks, and Red Sox. 

The Red Sox continued on to San Francisco, where they beat the Giants, 14-9, but then lost 6-4 and were shut out, 4-0. They lost seven of their last 10 games in June, and ended the month still in second place, but 7½ games behind New York.

The Rockies finished the season in fourth place in the NL West, 25 games behind the Dodgers. The Red Sox finished second in the AL East, three games behind the Yankees, but then won it all, sweeping the ALDS, batting nearly impossible odds to overcome an 0-3 start in the ALCS against the Yankees, and then sweeping the Cardinals in the World Series.

Building on his June 11 start, Lowe had thrown 14 consecutive scoreless innings. “He’s been showing us the D-Lowe that everybody expects from him,” said David Ortiz.4 Catcher Varitek added, “He’s better in control of himself. It all started with him being in the right frame of mind. In the last game, he finally had something positive, and he was able to repeat it.”5 Lowe finished the season 14-12 (despite a 5.42 ERA) but won the clinching games in each of the three rounds of the postseason.6

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. Thanks to Rod Nelson and Jim Wohlenhaus for material from Colorado newspapers, and to John Fredland for his suggestions.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/COL/COL200406170.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2004/B06170COL2004.htm

Notes

1 Cook estimated that Lowe had thrown sinkers for 71 of his first 80 pitches. Rockies manager Hurdle said Lowe was providing visual evidence that a sinker need not be a pitch affected by the altitude. Dan Wolken, “Rockies Sink Low in Home Blowout,” Colorado Springs Gazette, June 18, 2004: Sports1. Lowe said, “It only makes sense that if you keep the ball down, you have a better chance here.” Troy E. Renck, “Lowe Puts on Display; Sinkerball Works Wonders,” Denver Post, June 18, 2004: D-05.

2 Since National League rules applied, the Red Sox were not able to use a designated hitter. Manager Terry Francona had Ortiz play first base in two of the three games, rather than regular first baseman Kevin Millar, but Ortiz had substantial experience at first, including 45 games in 2003.

3 There were apparently a considerable number of Red Sox fans in attendance and in the eighth a loud and predictable “Yankees suck” chant broke out. The folks running the Rockies public-address system had fun, playing Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” and Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind.” Troy E. Renck, “Beefing Up Bullpen Top Priority,” Denver Post, June 18, 2004: D-05.

4 Bob Hohler, “Sox Enjoy a Lumber Party,” Boston Globe, June 18, 2004: E1, E6.

5 Hohler.

6 A free agent after the season, Lowe signed with the Dodgers in January and recovered his form with an ERA of 3.61.