James Shields made his first appearance as a member of the Chicago White Sox Wednesday.
It did not go well.
Just days after getting traded from San Diego to Chicago, the former Padres starter was shelled by the Washington Nationals and lasted only two-plus innings in his Windy City debut.
He allowed seven earned runs and eight hits against the Nats before getting pulled early in the 3rd frame.
His tendency to give up gopher balls continued as Washington tagged him for three home runs – raising his total to 12 homers allowed already this season.
Shields also threw an eye-popping 84 pitches but recorded just six outs. Only 44 of those pitches were strikes.
It didn’t help that he was matched up against some pitcher named Max Scherzer.
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The Nationals ace tossed two no-hitters a year ago and kept the White Sox in check for most of the night.
Just like in San Diego, Shields had little run support but when you fall behind 7-0 right out the chute, in this case it’s tough to blame the offense for struggling.
Chicago trailed 10-0 in the 8th inning and lost 11-4.
Shields allowed ten runs against Seattle last Tuesday in what turned out to be his final outing as a Padre.
He’s now allowed 17 runs in his last two starts and has pitched a combined 4.2 innings in those two losses.
That 16-4 defeat to the Mariners sparked Padres executive chairman Ron Fowler to voice his frustration on the Mighty 1090 radio station in which he infamously called out Shields as well as the subpar performance of the entire Padres team last Wednesday.
Shields is slated to start again for Chicago against Detroit on Monday evening.
