James Shields was the story of Monday night's series-opener in Cincinnati. At least he was until his manager stepped in and took him out of the game.
White Sox fans will be wondering why Renteria yanked Shields, who had thrown 88 pitches and allowed only one run, in favor of a relief corps that yielded four runs and caused countless headaches across the South Side in Monday's 5-3 loss. Shields himself didn't seem pleased with the skipper's decision, and Chris Volstad's four-run eighth guaranteed that sports-talk radio would have plenty of callers in the hours that followed.
But in this rebuilding season, losses thanks to the subpar performance of a reconstructed bullpen are to be expected.