KANSAS CITY, Mo. — With two outs in the ninth inning Tuesday night, Red Sox manager Terry Francona sent up Mike Lowell to hit for Jed Lowrie against right-handed reliever Joakim Soria. It was a sign that Francona still doesn’t feel comfortable relying on Lowrie as a left-handed hitter.

Gaining that confidence continues to be a work in progress for the switch-hitter.

“All I can do is what they ask of me. If they ask me to go out there and play, I’m ready to play,” Lowrie said. “If they want somebody else to hit, then so be it. I don’t feel like I’m being underminded. They just felt Mikey had a better chance. I’m not offended by that.”

Lowrie, who hasn’t hit left-handed since coming off the 15-day disabled list, feels his wrist has made progress to the point of being ready to hit lefty, a fact he reiterated to Sox bench coach Brad Mills when asked about his availability prior to the game.

“I’m limiting my swings because it feels better. That’s the only thing I know what to do at this point,” Lowrie said. “I know it’s been a couple of weeks now since I’ve taken a swing left-handed in a game, so I don’t know how it’s going to react in a game. Millsy came up to me and asked if I felt like I was ready to go and could hit left-handed and I told him, ‘Yeah, I’m OK.’ I want to see how it feels, but you have that situation and they felt Mikey had a better chance.”

Lowrie has altered his regimen a bit, taking less batting practice swings while also implementing laser surgery on his ailment. He says of playing defense (which he did in the eighth inning Tuesday night): “It doesn’t aggravate it. I can feel it, but it doesn’t make it any worse.” But when it comes to hitting from the left side, the affects of such an act remain to be seen.

“At this point I’ve tried almost everything and we’re going to try things until something sticks, but nothing really has,” he said. “It’s been a guessing game all year. But nothing has really stuck. It does feel like I’m making progress. That’s all I can ask for.”