Noah Lowry out at least through April

The Giants can't afford to start the season without one of their young starters, but that's exactly what they'll have to overcome.

Left-hander Noah Lowry is scheduled to have surgery on his left forearm on Friday and though he could be back throwing in 2 weeks, manager Bruce Bochy says it's more likely they'll be without him until the end of April.

“This is something that I don’t know enough about it to know how rare it is, but you don’t hear about it a lot,” Bochy said. “It’s not like this is a common occurrence in baseball players.”

Lowry was diagnosed with exertional compartment syndrome. According to MayoClinic.com, it is “an exercise-induced neuromuscular condition that causes pain, swelling and sometimes even disability in affected muscles of the legs or arms.”

It'll be interesting who the Giants put in Lowry's place until he's ready to return to the rotation.

Another Giants' pitcher has interesting outing

Should the Giants and manager Bruce Bochy be worried at this point? If they weren't after the terrible outing that Barry Zito had yesterday in a 23-8 thumping by the Oakland A's, maybe they should be today after the outing from left-hander Noah Lowry.

Lowry walked 9 of the 12 batters he faced, facing the entire Texas Rangers' lineup with 1 official at-bat against him. So far this spring, Lowry has walked 12 batters in 2 1/3 innings of work...manager Bruce Bochy:

“We were hoping he’d find it in the second. “He said he had trouble gripping the ball. He couldn’t feel it. This is definitely one he’s got to wash off. He’s going to bounce back and get the ball where he wants it. He has to deal with it but he’s a tough kid.”

Memo to the Giants, this could be a very VERY long season if this is any indication of the season to come.