Lowe Pitches Four Shutout Innings to Clinch Win in Yankee Debut

Derek Lowe pitched four shutout innings for his first save since 2001 in his New York Yankees debut, helping his new team to an 8-2 win over the Texas Rangers in a matchup of the American League’s top two clubs.

Lowe signed with the Yankees yesterday as a free agent, two days after the team put pitcher CC Sabathia on the 15-day disabled list with a sore elbow. After David Phelps held the Rangers to two runs in five innings, Lowe came on in relief and limited Texas to two hits the rest of the way.

“He really saved our bullpen,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Lowe. “His sinker was really good, his slider was good and he got a lot of ground ball outs.”

Nick Swisher hit a grand slam for his 200th career home run and finished with five runs batted in. Eric Chavez added a homer for the AL East-leading Yankees (68-47), who have won five of their past six games. The Rangers fell to 67-47.

Lowe, 39, joined the Yankees three days after being released by the Cleveland Indians. The 16-year Major League Baseball veteran had an 8-10 record with a 5.52 earned run average in 21 starts for the Indians this season.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net