Josh Lowe scratched Wednesday with neck stiffness

Lowe returned to the lineup on Saturday after missing the previous two contests with a neck issue. He looked just fine as he extended the Angels’ lead in the fifth inning with a leadoff home run off Braxton Ashcraft. It was the 11th home run of the season for the 28-year-old outfielder. He’s hitting .210/.273/.360 with 26 runs scored, 28 RBI, and seven steals across 295 plate appearances.

Lowe is back in right field and hitting seventh after missing two games with neck stiffness earlier this week.

Back in a nearly everyday role, Lowe is heating up just enough to get some deep league attention. He reached base three times in this game before being lifted for a pinch-hitter against Josh Hader in the ninth inning. He was also caught stealing, but we’re happy to see him attempting one, and has two homers since last Friday.

Lowe extended the Angels’ lead in the fourth inning with a solo homer off Cristian Javier. The home run was Lowe’s second in four games and tenth of the season while hitting .202/.259/.360 with 21 runs scored, 26 RBI, and four steals across 249 plate appearances.

Lowe was responsible for the only run of the game for the Angels on a solo shot off Sonny Gray. The 28-year-old has now homered seven times, but the former Tampa Bay outfielder has not been effective in his (relatively) new surroundings as seen in a slash of .217/.255/.382. Because of the lack of options — even with Mike Trout coming back soon — Lowe should still see a decent amount of playing time against right-handed pitching, so he will get a chance to see those poor numbers improve. It’s probably not a great idea to bet on it.

Lowe’s blast to right was the only extra-base hit either team collected today. He’s started four straight games since being recalled when Jose Siri went on the paternity list on Thursday, including both since Siri returned on Saturday. He’ll probably keep playing versus righties until Mike Trout returns, at which time the Angels can decide whether it’ll be worth playing him in a corner.

Before missing two games, Siri started seven games in a row in center with Mike Trout down. Now, though, he has Josh Lowe to contend with, which figures to mean less playing time against righties. Lowe, who was called up when Siri went on the paternity list, is making a third straight start tonight, and Siri will be available off the bench.

Congrats to Jose and his growing family. The 30-year-old is hitting .290/.351/.507 in 32 games this season with four home runs and 16 RBI. He will likely return at some point over this weekend.

With Jose Siri going on the paternity list, the Angels will turn back to Lowe, who was hitting .299/.397/.617 in 26 games at Triple-A with nine home runs and six steals. He still had a 26 percent strikeout rate and 13.3 percent swinging strike rate, but he was making more contact in the zone and more contact overall by being more aggressive. Lowe will have some contact issues and is unlikely to ever re-produce the season he had in 2023, but he also has intriguing raw tools and warrants regular playing time on an Angels team that is going nowhere.

Siri started playing regualrly for the Angels after being called up halfway through May, but has been a fixture in the starting lineup in June. This month, he’s gone 13-for-46 (.283) with three home runs, 14 RBI, one steal, and an 11/4 K/BB ratio. Siri has always had some contact issues and is still sporting a nearly 19 percent swinging strike rate; however, he is swinging far more than his career norm this season, which is giving him more chances to make contact. His bat speed is up a bit this season, and his launch angle is less drastic than we saw last year. He’s also using the middle of the field more than he has in previous seasons. It’s a small sample size, but he could be worth a gamble in deeper formats since he’s playing regularly.