Yet, given the brevity of the the time Shields spent on the mound, Machado and his teammates pounded him for eight runs on six hits – four of which left the ballpark. Baltimore Orioles’ Manny Machado rounds the bases after hitting a two-run home run against the Chicago White Sox during the first inning of a baseball game in Chicago, Sunday, Aug. 7, 2016. Fulmer got Machado to ground out in the fifth inning before Machado flew out in the seventh and grounded out in the eighth.
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Still a pretty good shot Machado gets one more at-bat in this game. According to research by Elias Sports Bureau, Machado became the second player in Major League Baseball history to hit a home run in each of the first three innings of a game, joining Carl Reynolds who did it for the White Sox on July 2, 1930.
White Sox outfielder Carl Reynolds homered in each of the first three innings of Chicago’s 15-4 win over the Yankees on July 2, 1930. Abreu essentially was the White Sox offense on Sunday, but it wasn’t almost enough with James Shields lighting the field aflame via eight runs allowed in 1 1/3 innings. He followed up with a three-run shot in the second, making it a 6-0 game.
Machado also blasted a two-run homer off reliever Matt Albers in the third inning as Baltimore took a 10-0 lead.
Prior to Machado, Paul Konerko was the last player to homer three times in a game at U.S. Cellular Field when he did it July 7, 2009.
Mets 3, Tigers 1 • Neil Walker hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the top of the ninth, and NY avoided a three-game series sweep. He’s never had seven RBI in a game before, but he did knock in six earlier this year on May 8 against the Athletics. The Orioles have hit a major league-best 168 homers this season.
“We caught a pitcher not on top of his game today”, manager Buck Showalter said.
Sunday’s outing marked the sixth time this season Shields has given up at least six runs and his second straight. “I wasn’t hitting my spots”.
After showing brief glimpses of his former “Big Games James” persona in recent outings, Shields on Sunday drifted back into the pitcher Sox fans have seen more than they care to admit.
“Today, I was pretty much bad all-around”, Shields said.
“It’s hard when you’re in the dugout for 20 minutes or so and these guys are hitting homers”, Bundy said, smiling.
“I’m trying to get everybody a day (off) on this trip”, Showalter said. Pearce was confident he’ll be back in a day or two.
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White Sox: LHP Chris Sale (14-5, 3.12) starts Tuesday against Royals RHP Edinson Volquez (8-10, 4.99) in Kansas City.
