Lowell done for the postseason
After weeks of enduring a painful right hip, Mike Lowell finally called it a season yesterday afternoon, saying he’ll have surgery Monday which will sideline him for the rest of the postseason.
The veteran third baseman and last season’s World Series MVP was playing through a partially torn right hip labrum and a painful bone spur in his right hip.
The injuries hindered the already slow-footed infielder and made it impossible for him to continue competing in the playoffs.
Early on, Lowell was simply having trouble moving laterally and attacking batters that bunted on him at third base, but — by the end — he simply had no mobility left and went hitless in eight excruciating postseason at-bats.
The surgery to repair the labrum and shave the bone spur is set for Monday, and should allow Lowell time to be ready by the time spring training rolls around.
“Theo [Epstein] told me there was a 99 percent chance I wouldn’t be on the [World Series] roster, but we’ve got to take care of business here first, obviously,” said Lowell. “I just didn’t want to drag it out and then see it affect the latter part of spring training or early next year. By mid-February, everything should be good to go for spring training.”
The 34-year-old battled several injuries during the season including a thumb injury, strained oblique and a problematic hip that cost Lowell 49 games this summer. He still hit .274 with 17 home runs and 73 RBIs, but felt like the hip really compromised his performance over the last three months of the season.
In Lowell’s absence, the Sox are expected to give the bulk of third base duties to Kevin Youkilis, who has done a marvelous job of flipping between first and third whenever Lowell has gone down with injuries.
“He knew before the series started to take a lot of ground balls during fielding practice because he hadn’t been over there as much,” said Sox manager Terry Francona. “There’s a lot of things that he’s done that make him even better than his numbers, and his numbers are phenomenal.”