Former Maryland 2B Brandon Lowe Homers for Rays Friday Night, Achieves Milestone
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Former Maryland second baseman and Tampa Bay Rays two-time All-Star Brandon Lowe hit his 21st home run of the 2025 season on Friday night, launching a 2-2 pitch off Luis Castillo with one out in the first inning to put the Rays up 1-0 in their 3-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, WA.
Brandon Lowe's 21st home run of the season puts @RaysBaseball in front 😎 pic.twitter.com/ooKRdStRj6
— MLB (@MLB) August 9, 2025
The Rays maintained a 2-0 lead until the bottom of the eighth inning. There, Mariners catcher Kyle Raleigh hit his 43rd home run of the year with two men on base to put the Mariners up for good.
Lowe is hitting .274 with 54 runs batted in and an on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) of .840 in 94 games for the Rays this season.
With that home run, Lowe has matched his mark for second-most home runs in a season. He hit 39 home runs in 2021. He is the fourth Tampa Bay Ray to notch over 20 home runs in a season. This matches Carlos Pena and Aubrey Huff, who have also achieved the feat four times, and Evan Longoria, who has done it nine times in his career as a Ray.
Lowe also became the fifth active primary second baseman, having played at least 50 percent of his games at second base, to achieve the feat. He joins Jose Altuve of the Houston Astros (six times), Ozzie Albies of the Atlanta Braves (four times), Ketel Marte of the Arizona Diamondbacks (four times), and Marcus Semien of the Texas Rangers (four times). He is tied with Marte with the most home runs as a second baseman for the 2025 season.
Lowe, 31, was drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays 87th overall in the third round of the 2015 MLB Draft. This happened two days after he broke his fibula in a Super Regional game against Virginia. Before then, he tore his ACL two days into his freshman season. After his first recovery, he was named third-team All-ACC. He led Maryland in hits, walks, runs, and doubles. He also participated in the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League in the summer of 2014.
After his second major recovery, Lowe began his professional career in 2016 with the Bowling Green Hot Rods, hitting .248 with five home runs and 42 RBI in 107 games.
He then split the following season between the Charlotte Stone Crabs and the Montgomery Biscuits, earning MVP honors in the Florida State League. In 2018, Lowe hit 22 home runs with a .297/.391/.558 split before his call-up to the Rays on August 4.
The Rays (57-60) look to even the series with the Mariners (64-53) in game two of the weekend series with the first pitch at 9:40 Eastern Time.
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Brandon is a lifelong sports long sports fanatic with over a decade in sports media. He's a Prince George’s County, Maryland native who has spent most of his adult life in the Greater Pittsburgh Area. After getting his start as an intern with Sportsradio 93.7 the fan in Pittsburgh, he covered high school sports for TribTotalMedia, covered Pittsburgh Athletics for Pittsburgh Sports Report, Pittsburgh Sports Now (Penn State coverage), and was credentialed for the 2022 season for the New Pittsburgh Courier. Brandon is now covering HBCU Sports for Urban Media Today, as well covering the Terps for Maryland on SI.