Major League Baseball

Lowe comes up just short;Veteran chalks up eight strikeouts, allowing two earned runs in loss.

Published Oct. 12, 2010 10:10 a.m. ET

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A Braves fan held up a sign in honor of Derek Lowe on Monday night that read: "D Lowe is D Man." Oh, how he almost was.

Facing elimination from the postseason and the end to Bobby Cox's 25-season tenure as Braves manager, the Braves turned to the geeked-up guy on their staff who has been auditioning for this job the past month --- that of go-to pitcher.

Lowe continued his renaissance on the mound for the better part of 6 1/3 innings Monday against the Giants. He allowed only two hits --- one a solo homer by Cody Ross, the second a dribbler down the third-base line by Buster Posey.

But that swinging bunt and a walk to Aubrey Huff opened the door to a two-run seventh inning for the Giants and a 3-2 win that clinched the National League Division Series for the Giants.

Giving an indication of how good Lowe was: At his first sign of significant trouble, with two runners on in the seventh inning, he drew Cox to the mound for a conversation, but not the ball. Arms crossed, Cox heard Lowe out and left him there despite his 96 pitches.

With some 44,000 fans at Turner Field chanting "Let's go D Lowe," Lowe couldn't find the strike zone on four of his next five pitches. With Lowe's walk to Pat Burrell, Cox had no choice. Knowing his chance had passed, Lowe bent over at the waist, standing on the back of the mound.

Lowe had recorded a personal postseason-high eight strikeouts. He had a 2-1 lead to work with. He had not allowed a hit until Ross' solo home run with one out in the sixth. But he could not make it happen. He ended up taking the loss.

After he left the bases loaded for Peter Moylan, Juan Uribe grounded to Alex Gonzalez, who threw high to second base, allowing a run to score. Ross then drove in another on a single to left off reliever Jonny Venters.

Lowe was charged with three runs, two of which were earned. It was the most he had allowed in seven outings since Aug. 29, since before this run started that got him NL pitcher of the month in September and the ball on three days' rest with the season on the line. Lowe had gone 5-1 with a 1.17 ERA in five September starts.