And he won 3 games in the 2004 playoffs, 1 as a reliever. I’m not saying that wasn’t a fine accomplishment, but he was so incredibly bad that 10th inning duty in game 3 of a series the Sox were sweeping was the only duty he even saw in the DS.

I’m not trying to take too much away from him in respect to the 2004 playoffs, but really….anyone could have been the pitcher of record in Game 3 of the ALDS and game 4 of the World Series (They were sweeping which is the only reason he even got the ball. If the series were 2-1 or even worse 1-2 Lowe would not have been starting)….and as for game 7 of the ALCS….kind of hard to lose when the team stakes you to a 6-0 lead. But again, he did pitch a fine game. But most other pitchers on the team would have won that game.

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/08/01/and-that-happened-tuesdays-scores-and-highlights-78/

He always raised expectations and then when the team counted on him, he flopped.

He was a very good middle reliever, stepped into the closer’s role due to necessity and was lights out. So they go into the next season counting on him to continue being a solid closer, and he flops. Hard. So they have to acquire Ugueth Urbina, and the convert Lowe to starter without much expectation.

What happens? He finishes 3rd in the Cy Young race, and the Sox finally have a solid #2 option behind Pedro. So they don’t add any major acquisitions to the rotation, and what do they get from their solid #2? His ERA goes up 2 runs and he is almost exactly league average. So they go into 2004 acquiring Curt Schilling to shore up the rotation and counting on Lowe to at least be average, maybe improve a little….nope. One of the worst starting pitcher in baseball (Granted there were a few guys with worse ERAs, but he also allowed 28 unearned runs!)

And that sums up Lowe’s career in Boston. 2 seasons where he was a beast. And then he failed miserably after each one.

Of course, some off field indiscretions may have played a role in all that but that doesn’t change what happened on the field.