Derek Lowe didn’t think he’d be a factor in the ALCS – and didn’t mind saying so. Now he might be the X-factor.

As soon as he arrived at Yankee Stadium on Monday, the Red Sox right-hander told people in the visiting clubhouse that if they wanted to watch him throw, they should get out to the field during warm-ups.

The situation has changed drastically. Curt Schilling’s potential unavailability in Game 5 due to a right ankle tendon problem makes Lowe the likely fill-in candidate.

But Lowe’s tune hasn’t changed too much.

“You don’t want to get it by default,” Lowe told reporters in the visiting dugout last night, before Game 2. “What kills me about the whole thing is not being able to contribute.

“This is my fourth year in the playoffs, and every year I felt like I contributed. This postseason [stinks], in a way, because you know your role isn’t really going to be that important.

“So if you get an opportunity to start, you gladly take it. You look forward to it, because you want to help.”

Lowe hoped Schilling could make the start, but he’d like to know by today if he’ll be starting, so he can prepare.

But manager Terry Francona professed confidence Schilling could pitch and declined to reveal what the Sox would do if he can’t.

“The good thing for us is [Lowe] is able to relieve, he’s able to start, he is stretched out as a starter and he’s pitched big games in the playoffs,” Francona said. “If we have to make adjustments, we’re very able to do that.”

Lowe doesn’t enjoy relief work, even though he was the winning pitcher in Game 3 of the ALDS.

“I don’t want to sound like a wise [apple], but I’ve been out there for four games and pitched 12 pitches,” he said of his current role. “I don’t think the usage of me [out of the bullpen] is really going to be missed.”

Lowe, who won 21 games and tossed a no-hitter in 2002, was the starter who was bounced from the playoff rotation because of Bronson Arroyo’s emergence and Tim Wakefield’s rep as a Yankee killer.

Still plagued by questions about his makeup, the 2002 All-Star Game starter finished 14-12 with a 5.42 ERA this season.

“It was an up-and-down year for Derek,” Francona admitted. “And we weathered the early part of the season and stayed with him and got paid the dividends of his ability as a pitcher.

“He won a lot of games for us. There was a lot of ups and downs.”