Four hours before Monday?s game against the Blue Jays, a smiling Adam Loewen sat alone in the empty Orioles dugout, happy to be back in familiar surroundings.
“I?ve pitched here (at the Rogers Centre) with the Canadian team, and I always loved the Jays when I was growing up. I got hooked on baseball when they won back-to-back World Series titles in ?92 and ?93,” he said.
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The rookie hails from Surrey, British Columbia, which is three time zones and 2,800 miles from downtown Toronto. That isn?t the way Loewen sees it, though. The 6-foot-5, 235-pound lefty is just proud to be back in his native country.
“I haven?t played in Canada since I was in high school,” said Loewen, 22. “It?s just really great to come back and have a chance to play in front of your hometown fans.”
It sounds more than a little funny to hear Loewen refer to Torontonians as his being his hometown fans, considering that he has never lived here and that the distance between Surrey and Toronto is the same as the distance between New York and San Diego.
Loewen says none of that matters. He starred for Canada in the World Baseball Classic last spring, where he threw 3.2 shutout innings in an upset victory over the United States. That performance put Loewen, the game?s winning pitcher, into the hearts of Canadian baseball fans.
The fourth pick overall in the 2002 MLB draft, Loewen now bleeds black-and-orange. He was 0-0 with an ERA of 7.80 prior to Tuesday?s start against the Blue Jays.
“My first two starts have come against the Yankees and the Jays, against Randy Johnson and Roy Halladay,” Loewen said with a chuckle. “That?s a very difficult task for my first couple of times, but I think I?ve done all right. I held my own.”
Loewen says that his success vs. the All-Star American lineup at the WBC has given him the confidence that he can face anyone. “I?ll probably never face a lineup that good again. I was nervous, but I didn?t pay attention to the hitters. I did my own thing and made my pitches,” he said.
“He?s a young player with great ability,” said Ernie Whitt, a Blue Jays bench coach and the manager of the Canadian team at the WBC. “I had every confidence in him from the get-go. He has good stuff, and he is going to be a very good pitcher at the major-league level.”
Dave Kaufman is a free-lance writer based in Montreal.
