ATLANTA — Braves pitcher Derek Lowe has been charged with drunken driving.

Gordy Wright, a spokesman for the Georgia State Patrol, said a trooper stopped Lowe’s vehicle about 10 p.m. Thursday on an Atlanta street. The trooper detected an odor of an alcoholic beverage and administered a field sobriety test, which resulted in Lowe’s arrest.

The 37-year-old right-hander was charged with DUI, reckless driving and improper lane change, Wright said. Lowe declined to take a breath test before he was released, the spokesman added.

The Braves were off Thursday after returning home from a West Coast road trip. They open a three-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night.

“Obviously we are concerned and disappointed about the events involving Derek Lowe overnight,” the team said in a statement. “We are currently gathering information and plan to address this matter later today.”

Lowe, who could not immediately be reached for comment, is in the third season of a four-year, $60 million contract with the Braves. He has been the team’s opening-day starter all three years.

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Lowe started his Major League career with the Seattle Mariners in 1997, and was traded to the Boston Red Sox that year. In 2004, he had a 3-0 postseason record and 1.86 ERA in four games, three of them starts. He was the winner in the final game of all three postseason series, including the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, when the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years.

In 2005, he was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who traded him to the Braves in 2009.

This season, Lowe is 2-3 with a 3.21 earned run average. He is scheduled to make his next start Sunday.

The Braves already were investigating allegations against pitching coach Roger McDowell that he made crude comments, sexual gestures and threatened to knock out a fan’s teeth with a bat before a game in San Francisco last weekend. The coach could face disciplinary action from the team or Major League Baseball.

“I am deeply sorry that I responded to the heckling fans in San Francisco,” McDowell said in a statement, his only public comments on the incident. “I apologize to everyone for my actions.”

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said McDowell’s apology was only a start, and baseball commissioner Bud Selig called the accusations “very troubling.” MLB is awaiting the results of the Braves’ investigation before determining whether to take action.

McDowell was a star reliever with the Mets and Philadelphia Phillies in the late 1980s and early ’90s, playing a key role on New York’s 1986 World Series-winning club.

He has been the Atlanta’s pitching coach since 2005.


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