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. 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.
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Shields had his worst outing of the season on Sunday afternoon and Machado homered three times as the Baltimore Orioles routed the White Sox 10-2 in front of 31,040 at U.S. Cellular Field.
Machado also blasted a two-run homer off reliever Matt Albers in the third inning as Baltimore took a 10-0 lead.
“He just single-handedly put us in a hole, and I’m talking about Machado”, Sox manager Robin Ventura said. “I wasn’t in my spots; I was leaving the ball out over the plate, and they were capitalizing. You can’t do that against this team”. Alvarez had two home runs on the night, both solo shots.
“I’m sure Manny had some emotions”, Orioles manager Buck Showalter said, “and he certainly took them out on the field with him”. “It’s tough to do”.
Reds 7, Pirates 3 • Major league steals leader Billy Hamilton swiped four bases, got three hits and scored three runs as visiting Cincinnati avoided a three-game series sweep.
UP NEXT: Dylan Bundy (4-3, 3.05) faces James Shields (3-6, 5.64) in the final game of the series at 2:10 p.m. on Sunday. He also became the first Orioles player to finish with three HRs and seven RBIs in a game since Cal Ripken Jr. did it against the Seattle Mariners in 1996. He also grounded out in the ninth inning against Michael Ynoa in his bid to become the 17th player in baseball history with four homers in the same game.
“It’s been a insane season for me”, Shields said. After homering in his first three at-bats, Machado grounded into a double play in the fifth, lined out in the seventh and groundedout in the ninth.The White Sox ended the shutout with Todd Frazier’s sacrifice fly in the fourth.
WHAT WENT RIGHT: While the Orioles lost, so did Toronto and Boston, so the Orioles remain in first place, percentage points ahead of the Blue Jays and two games ahead of the Red Sox. Instead, Shields returned to the form he displayed when he arrived to the White Sox in June.
Rodon allowed five hits, walked two and struck out seven in six innings, extending his winless streak to nine starts.
Jose Abreu hit his third homer in four days for the White Sox, who have dropped eight of 11.
Trumbo, 0 for 9 with six strikeouts against Shields, was out of the lineup for the first time in 110 games. “So I know a couple of our guys came back and say they were trying to guess where it is”.
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Struggling 1B Chris Davis was moved down in the Orioles’ batting order to sixth.
