Rays' Josh Lowe hits 2 homers to beat Nationals

Marc Topkin, Tampa Bay Times on Aug 30, 2025

Published in Baseball

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WASHINGTON — When the Nationals surprisingly designated his older brother, Nathaniel, for assignment in mid-August, Rays outfielder Josh Lowe called the situation “interesting,” saying, “I’ll just leave it at that.”

On Saturday Lowe seemed to show the Nationals what he really thought, delivering his first two-home run game in more than a year to lead the Rays to a 4-1 win.

Lowe hit a three-run homer in the first inning and added a solo blast in the fourth. Ryan Pepiot worked five solid innings, as the Rays improved to 66-69.

Lowe’s first homer came after an extended at-bat by Junior Caminero stretched the opening inning against Jake Irvin. The Rays had two outs after Chandler Simpson’s leadoff bunt hit was negated by Yandy Diaz’s double-play grounder. Brandon Lowe singled, then Caminero worked a nine-pitch walk to get Lowe to the plate.

He drove a 1-1 sinker 409 feet just over the center-field fence for his first homer in a month, since July 30, and eighth of the season.

Lowe went deep off Irvin again in the fourth, this time driving a 1-1 curveball 423 feet to center. He hadn’t hit two homers in a game since Aug. 3, 2024.

Nathaniel ended up all right after getting released by the last place Nationals. He received his full $10.3 million salary and signed with the playoff contending Boston Red Sox.

Pepiot, operating under workload limits as he has well surpassed his previous innings high, gave the Rays five shutout innings for the second straight start.

This time, Pepiot allowed one hit, though with three walks, and struck out six.

Counting Saturday’s outing, which was his career-high 28th start, Pepiot has thrown 158 innings. Last year, including a rehab start at Double-A Montgomery, he threw 133 1/3.

Manager Kevin Cash said before the game that Pepiot had put together “a really solid season” for the team.

“We are getting to the point with his innings that we’ve got to put some thought and (be) mindful to the workload moving forward,” Cash said. “But we’ve had discussions with ‘Pep’ and know that we care a lot about him and couldn’t be happier with the build where he’s gotten to this year from last year.”

Caminero also made a key play on a slow roller to end the eighth after the Nationals scored one run and had the bases loaded against Griffin Jax.

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