Shields Gives Up 2 Homers, White Sox Lose To Phillies 5-3
CHICAGO (CBS) — The arrow once again is pointing down for the Chicago White Sox.
James Shields gave up two more home runs, and the White Sox lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-3, on Wednesday night, hours after announcing a name change is coming to their ballpark.
U.S. Cellular Field will become known as Guaranteed Rate Field after the team and mortgage company announced a 13-year naming rights agreement.
Guaranteed Rate's logo has an arrow pointing down, a direction teams try to avoid. Fitting, the way theWhite Sox's season has gone. And the way Shields has pitched lately.
"We've seen better," manager Robin Ventura said.
As for the White Sox, well, the arrow has been pointing down ever since a 23-10 start. They will likely miss the playoffs for the 10th time in 11 seasons since the 2005 team won the World Series.
Tommy Joseph and Cesar Hernandez homered to back Jerad Eickhoff, Philadelphia showed some spark at the plate and on the mound — a big change for a team that got outscored a combined 18-1 over the previous two games against St. Louis and Chicago. The Phillies came away with the win after dropping five of seven and salvaged a two-game split in their first trip to Chicago's South Side since 2004.
"These guys are grinding," Eickhoff said. "They're pushing themselves each and every night. For them to put some runs up there, it was a great feeling."
Joseph and Hernandez both had two hits and went deep against Shields (5-16). Aaron Altherr added two RBI singles.
Eickhoff (9-12) did his part, allowing two runs and four hits over six innings.
Jeanmar Gomez worked the ninth for his 34th save in 38 chances. He gave up an RBI single to Avisail Garcia before Dioner Navarro grounded out with runners on first and third to end the game.
Shields set a career high with his 16th loss.
The veteran right-hander gave up four runs and seven hits in six innings. He struck out six and walked none.
The home runs by Hernandez leading off the third and Joseph in the sixth brought Shields' total to 31 this season and 22 since the White Sox acquired him from San Diego on June 4.
"Honestly, I think the only pitch I made a mistake on was that last one, the home run in the sixth inning," he said. "The ball kind of slipped out of my hand a little bit and I left it over the plate. Other than that, I felt really good with my location tonight. I was hitting my spots consistently. They were getting hits here and there, but that's part of it."
Shields is 0-4 with a 13.95 ERA in five starts this month after posting a 1.78 ERA over five outings in July.
Navarro hit a two-run homer in the sixth. But that was all the scoring against Eickhoff, who improved to 3-0 in his past five starts.
SURGING
Chicago's Jose Abreu is batting .367 this month, and Adam Eaton is 16 for 45 in his past 11 games. Both had a hit in this game.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Phillies: INF Andres Blanco (broken finger) is eyeing a Sept. 1 return.
White Sox: 2B Brett Lawrie had an MRI on his left knee and hip, though Ventura did not have the results. Lawrie initially was placed on the DL because of a hamstring issue but returned from his rehab assignment because of a setback.
UP NEXT
Phillies: The Phillies open a three-game series at the Mets on Friday, with LHP Adam Morgan (1-7, 6.21 ERA) starting for Philadelphia and RHP Bartolo Colon (11-7, 3.36) for New York.
White Sox: RHP Anthony Ranaudo (1-1, 9.42) makes his third start for the White Sox as Chicago opens a four-game series against the Seattle Mariners.
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