The Cleveland Indians had all the runs they needed before James Shields recorded an out.
Shields was shellacked for a third consecutive start. The Tribe greeted him with a walk, double, single, homer for a 4-0 lead, and unlike his last start, he couldn't save even the slightest amount of face. Instead, he allowed eight runs over just 1⅔ innings, as Matt Purke was once again needed to save the meat of the bullpen from the first five innings.
I'll talk about Shields in more detail -- or maybe more generally, I don't know yet -- tomorrow morning, so there isn't much of a point in delving deep into that mess.
On the other side, Danny Salazar entered tonight's game with a 2.19 ERA, the lowest in the American League. The White Sox raised it, but not by nearly enough to register in one way or another.
Jose Abreu had a great day, going 3-for-4 with a homer and a double. Adam Eaton contributed two hits, and the rest of the offense combined to 2-for-26, which makes it hard to tell the years apart. Melky Cabrera was only around for one of those at-bats, as he rolled his right wrist chasing down some of the quality contact Shields allowed.
At least they provided a couple moments of levity.
- Dioner Navarro committed the goofiest error of the season.
- Brett Lawrie Brett Lawrieing:
Alas, funbad comes at a cost -- namely, it's usually a bad team producing these moments. Now that they're two games under .500 for the first time in 2016, they're further away from "good" than they've been all year.
Record: 33-35 | Box score | Highlights