PAWTUCKET — It wasn’t the type of offensive performance that ranked him among the top hitters in the American League last season, but Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell nevertheless took what he considered to be another positive step forward in the first game of his 20-day rehab assignment with the Pawtucket Red Sox last night at McCoy.

Serving as the DH, Lowell — who is working his way back from a sprained left thumb suffered 2 ½ weeks ago — went 1-for-5, but made that one hit count, knocking in two runs to help the PawSox post a 6-1 victory over the Syracuse Chiefs, before a crowd of 7,214.

“How exciting is that — you’ve got a guy with 120 RBI last year and he’s up with the bases loaded,” said PawSox manager Ron Johnson said of Lowell’s run-scoring single in the second inning. “And he didn’t let us down.”

“The key is he was able to get his at-bats up there and get the reps because we all know why he’s here. . . . .But it was exciting. I know I was excited watching him at third base.”

Lowell was pleased with the outing, as well.

“I was actually happy about recognizing pitches,” said the 34-year-old, who last season racked up both a career-high and a team-high 191 hits. “I saw a lot of different pitches. Squared up a couple balls, so that was good. Overall, I don’t think there’s anything negative, so I think that’s good.”

Lowell, who was batting .200 through his first nine games in Boston before injuring his hand, sprained his left thumb while making a diving stop on the first play of the Sox’ April 9 matchup against the Detroit Tigers.

Placed on the 15-day disabled list the next day, he began working his way back from the injury last Saturday, taking 35 swings off the batting tee.

Lowell took a combination of swings off the tee and some soft toss on Sunday and Monday, then started hitting live pitching on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

He said his hand has continued to improve, and he was looking forward to spending three days with the PawSox so that he could“get the kinks out.”

Batting in the third slot last night, Lowell popped up to short in his first plate appearance.

He quickly redeemed himself in the second with his two-out, bases-loaded single to center field that drove in Jonathan Van Every and Joe Thurston.

Lowell flew out to deep center in his third at-bat in the fifth and then hit a high pop-up in foul territory that was caught by Syracuse third baseman Hector Luna for the third out in the sixth.

With two outs and George Kottaras on second after the Pawtucket catcher hit the right-field gap, Lowell got jammed and hit a weak pop-up to second in his final at bat — although on a positive note, he said he still felt no pain in his thumb.

“In my first three at-bats, I kind of purposely took the first pitch to see pitches and all three were strikes, so I kind of wanted to give up on that philosophy. I don’t really like to start out 0-1 every time,” said a smiling Lowell, who is expected to play third base for Pawtucket tonight at Buffalo and will DH in tomorrow afternoon’s matchup. “The second and third at-bat I was very happy with, laid off pitches that were kind of close and then swung at the pitch I wanted to.

“I think I had two decent (at-bats),” he continued. “But a good at-bat, for me at least, isn’t always the end result. I think it was more how I felt seeing pitches. I didn’t feel I was jumpy at all.”

cthornton@projo.com