Shields roughed up by Machado, Orioles; White Sox fall 10-2
CHICAGO (AP) - The Chicago White Sox have had a roller-coaster season, and James Shields has experienced as many sudden drops as anyone.
Shields allowed four home runs Sunday before being pulled in the second inning, and the White Sox lost to the Baltimore Orioles 10-2. Baltimore's Manny Machado became the second player in major league history to homer in the first, second and third innings, driving in a career-high seven runs.
"Today I was pretty much bad all around," Shields said. "I wasn't hitting my spots. I was leaving the ball over the plate, and they were capitalizing on it. You can't do that against this team."
Machado hit a two-run homer in the first and a three-run shot in the second off Shields, who got only four outs.
Machado hit another two-run homer in the third off Matt Albers. According to STATS, the only other player to do that was Carl Reynolds of the White Sox on July 2, 1930, at the Yankees.
"It's awesome," Machado said. "It's tough to do. First off, you don't get at-bats every inning. To go out there and more or less get three homers, it's pretty cool. It's pretty awesome, I'm not going to lie."
Chris Davis followed Machado's second homer with his own and J.J. Hardy added a two-run shot before Shields (5-14) left to boos. The Orioles have hit a major league-best 168 homers this season.
Dylan Bundy (5-3) stuck out a career-high nine in six innings in Baltimore's fifth win in seven games.
One night after Machado couldn't come up with a popup that drove in the winning run for Chicago, the 24-year-old slugger became the first Baltimore player to homer three times since Davis on May 20, 2014, against Pittsburgh.
The All-Star third baseman pulled all three shots to left field on the warm, breezy day to make it 10-0 and give him 25 homers on the season. He's ninth player in big league history to homer in any three consecutive innings.
"I know (Shields) is upset about the first one that Manny hit," White Sox manager Robin Ventura said. "It came back over the plate, but (when) you've got a guy who was extremely hot and is one of the best players in the game, you can't make mistakes like that. (Machado) just single-handedly put us in the hole."
Machado grounded into a double play in the fifth, lined to center in the seventh and grounded to third in the ninth, failing to become the first Baltimore player to hit four homers in a game.
The Orioles, who sat home run leader Mark Trumbo (31) for the first time this season, showed the depth of their power as they opened a one-game lead over Toronto in the AL East.
Most of the damage came against Shields, who had improved after a rough start with the White Sox following a June trade with San Diego. He was charged with eight runs and six hits with two walks and two hit batters, marking the sixth start the right-hander has allowed at least six runs.
Jose Abreu hit his third homer in four days for the White Sox, who have dropped eight of 11.
Bundy, a rookie reliever-turned-starter, allowed two runs and four hits.
TRUMBO SITS
Trumbo, 0 for 9 with six strikeouts against Shields, was out of the lineup for the first time in 110 games.
"I'm trying to get everybody a day (off) on this trip," manager Buck Showalter said.
Davis, who homered for the first time since July 10, was back at cleanup after being dropped to sixth Saturday.
TRAINER'S ROOM
White Sox: CF Austin Jackson (knee surgery) visited teammates Saturday and is off crutches, but isn't close to beginning baseball work. ... Ventura hopes 2B Brett Lawrie (hamstring) can begin a minor league rehab assignment during the upcoming nine-game trip. ... C Alex Avila (hamstring) is still feeling discomfort when he jogs.
UP NEXT
Orioles: The season-high 10-game trip moves to Oakland, with RHP Kevin Gausman (3-8, 4.08 ERA) starting Monday night against A's RHP Kendall Graveman (7-7, 4.46).
White Sox: LHP Chris Sale (14-5, 3.12) starts Tuesday against Royals RHP Edinson Volquez (8-10, 4.99) in Kansas City.