James Shields ~ SP [R]

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James Anthony Shields (born on December 20, 1981 in Newhall, California) is a Major League Baseball starting pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays. He bats and throws right-handed.

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RHP James Shields finished up his outing in the Triple-A exhibition, going five innings, giving up two runs on four walks and two hits. Shields struck out five, while throwing 83 pitches.

Shields struggled with his command early on, walking the bases loaded in the first, but seemed to settle in after the first couple innings.

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Opening day starter James Shields is off to a rough start, walking the first two Twins. Now he's gotten two outs on balls hit in the air. And now Jason Kubel singled in a run. Michael Cuddyer made the third out on a fly to left-center. 1-0 Twins.

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Justin Morneau just led off the fourth with a homer to almost dead center field off Shields on a 1-1 pitch. Now, 2-0 Twins. And Jason Kubel followed with a single.

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Shields isn't having a good day, having just allowed a two-run line drive homer to Michael Cuddyer. Now it's 4-0 Twins in the fourth.

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Shields is going to be very cranky later - he just started the fifth by giving up a single to Justin Morneau and another homer, a massive two-run shot to right by Jason Kubel. It was the third homer of the day he allowed. walk, a hit batter (coincidence?) and a single made it 9-2, and then a double to right-center (also over Burrell's head) made it 10-2. And now Span dropped a single in front of Burrell, so it's 11-2.

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Shields' miserable day is done, having allowing 11 runs on 12 hits (including three home runs) and three walks plus a hit batter in 4 1/3 innings.

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The Rays lost 16-2. Shields said he felt fine, just didn't pitch well: "It's garbage. I don't care if it's spring training or not, it's not a good outing. I guess there's only one positive thing to come out of it, you can only get better from there.''

Also, "That was pretty bad, and it's not really me.''

Manager Joe Maddon pretty much agreed. "He was missing some spots, overall his velocity was good and all that other kind of stuff. They just hit him today. I'm really not concerned at all,'' Maddon said. "He's healthy, he's throwing the ball well, he'll just sharpen things up a bit. He had to get his work in.''

Shields actually was in good humor, joking that after facing Minnesota's Triple-A team in minor-league games his last two outings: "Joe decided to call me up from the minor leagues finally and I pretty much didn't help my cause for staying here.''

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RHP James Shields has been much shaper than his last start, when he gave up 11 runs on 12 hits to the Twins.

So far, Shields has had good command, giving up just one run on four hits over three innings. His last inning was 1-2-3, all strikeouts, all swinging.


Twins 1, Rays 0

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RHP James Shields just finished his solid outing, going four innings, giving up one run and four hits. LHP Brian Shosue has come in.