Shields 4-hits ChiSox As Rays Stay Hot at BetLM

Shields 4-hits ChiSox As Rays Stay Hot

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. —Tampa Bay man­ager Joe Mad­don could sense early on that James Shields was head­ing for a big game.

Shields struck out nine in a four-hitter and the surg­ing Rays beat the Chicago White Sox 2–1 on Tues­day night for their sev­enth win in eight games.

“It was really fun to watch,” Mad­don said. “He kept his tempo. He kept his pace. The qual­ity of the loca­tions was severe. On the money all night long. I could tell he was on right from jump street.”

Shields (1–1) out­pitched John Danks and walked one in his sixth career com­plete game, and first since June 10, 2008, against the Los Ange­les Angels.

“I wanted it, that’s for sure,” Shields said. “Joe had some faith in me. I was cruis­ing through the game. It’s excit­ing. I got the CG. It’s been a long time.”

It was the sec­ond straight out­stand­ing pitch­ing per­for­mance for Tampa Bay. David Price and Joel Per­alta com­bined on a four-hitter in a 5–0 win over the White Sox on Mon­day night.

Danks (0–2) gave up two runs and seven hits in seven innings for the White Sox, who have lost six in a row. The left-hander struck out five and hit two batters.

“It’s a shame when you’re wast­ing good pitch­ing,” Chicago man­ager Ozzie Guillen said.

Danks held the Rays with­out a hit in six at-bats—including a pair of strike­outs by B.J. Upton—with run­ners in scor­ing posi­tion through three innings, and 0 for 8 overall.

The White Sox, who have scored just 29 runs over the last 10 games, tied it at 1 in the fifth. Car­los Quentin hit a lead­off dou­ble and scored on A.J. Pierzynski’s one-out sin­gle to center.

“It’s a com­bi­na­tion of both,” Guillen said. “Shields pitched very well and we’re not swing­ing the bat well. We’re strug­gling right now at the plate, big time.”

The Rays went back in front in the bot­tom half of the fifth on Sean Rodriguez’s run-scoring triple.

Shields got some defen­sive help in the sev­enth from catcher Kelly Shop­pach, who picked Paul Kon­erko off at first after Quentin struck out.

Chicago des­ig­nated hit­ter Adam Dunn went 0 for 4, includ­ing three strike­outs. He has two hits in his last 27 at-bats.

Guillen said he might drop Dunn, who missed six games after hav­ing an emer­gency appen­dec­tomy on April 6, down in the lineup from his cur­rent third spot.

“Just so he can relax,” Guillen said. “When you’re out for a few days, it takes you a lit­tle while to come back and regroup.”

Shields ended the game by strik­ing out Dunn and Kon­erko with Juan Pierre on second.

“It’s awe­some,” Mad­don said. “He was very con­fi­dent the last three innings.”

Tampa Bay grabbed the lead in the first when Ben Zobrist tripled and scored on a grounder by Felipe Lopez, who had three RBIs in Monday’s game. Zobrist entered hit­less in 10 at-bats against Danks.

Des­ig­nated hit­ter Johnny Damon (bruised left ring fin­ger tip) and first base­man Dan John­son (sore left forearm-wrist) were out of the Rays’ lineup. Both could start again in the next cou­ple days.

NOTES: Tampa Bay LF Sam Fuld, the replace­ment for All-Star Carl Craw­ford, received high praise from Mad­don. “There’s no drop off,” Mad­don said. “Sam’s play­ing that level of defense right now. All the dif­fer­ent things he’s doing defen­sively, I can’t say that Carl’s bet­ter.” Craw­ford signed with Boston dur­ing the off­sea­son. … Danks didn’t allow a run in the first three innings of his other three starts this sea­son. … Tampa Bay LHP J.P. How­ell, com­ing back from left shoul­der surgery, is set to pitch in extended spring train­ing after throw­ing a 35-pitch bat­ting prac­tice ses­sion. The reliever is not expected to rejoin the team until mid-May.

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