Chicago White Sox: Rough night for James Shields

The newest Chicago White Sox starter, James Shields, had an inauspicious first outing with his new team Wednesday night.

James Shields was traded from the San Diego Padres to the Chicago White Sox over the weekend and told reporters that while it was bittersweet to leave San Diego, he was excited to be in Chicago. He also added, “I’m excited to do some things here.” Well, he did some things in his first start at The Cell, but they weren’t very good.

Shields was battered around by the Washington Nationals on Wednesday night, but the result wouldn’t exactly be a surprise to Padres’ fans who watched as Shields gave up eight runs on 10 hits in only 2 2/3 innings in his last start for San Diego on May 31. In this latest start against the Nats, Shields’ outing was even shorter.

So what went wrong for right hander? A lot.

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Shields started off the game with a strikeout of Ben Revere, which is good, but then the wheels fell off, and the car went completely off the road and crashed into a ravine. He walked Jayson Werth, then Bryce Harper bunted his way on base, advancing Werth to second. Shields then threw a wild pitch while Daniel Murphy was at the plate and Werth and Harper moved up a base, putting men on second and third with only out. Murphy hit a single that scored Werth and Harper moved over to third. Wilson Ramos grounded out to third which scored Harper and Ryan Zimmerman hit a two-run home run.

Things didn’t get better for Shields in the second inning. He surrendered a home run to the first batter of the inning, Stephen Drew and then Danny Espinosa followed it up with his ninth home run of the year. Shields then gave up three singles and had the bases loaded with two outs and Zimmerman up to bat again. Fortunately for Shields, Zimmerman grounded out to end the inning without further damage. The Nats were up 6-0.

Shields gave up a single to Anthony Rendon to start the third and White Sox manager Robin Ventura had seen enough from his newest starter. Zach Putnam relieved Shields and ended up allowing that run to score. Shields’ final line was two innings, seven runs on eight hits—three home runs—with two walks and one strikeout.

Shields’ counterpart, Max Scherzer threw 97 pitches in seven innings en route to his seventh win of the season. Shields, on the other hand, had thrown 84 by the time he exited the game in the third inning—32 in the first, 47 in the second and five in the third.

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The White Sox have been on a bit of a downslide since mid-May, going 6-20 in their last 26 games, and adding a sub-par starter to their rotation will not help them in their quest for the American League Central title. Shields will need to improve upon his last couple of outings and start pitching like he did in April and most of May, otherwise, the Sox will be sliding even further down the standings.

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