Shields hammered in White Sox debut

James Shields' debut with the Chicago White Sox couldn't have gone much worse.

After allowing seven earned runs on eight hits Wednesday against the Washington Nationals, Shields was booed by the U.S. Cellular crowd as he was taken out of the game in the top of the third inning.

By the time Washington flipped over its lineup for the first time, they had already tagged Shields for six runs:

"Today wasn't a good day. I didn't do my job and I need to do better," Shields told reporters of his shaky debut. "I was kind of all over the place.

"Fastball location wasn't very good. I wasn't getting ahead of hitters, and when I did get the ball over the plate, they hit it out of the yard. Be aggressive with the fastball and get better location with the fastball. When I have good fastball location, all my offspeed pitches are working and everything else is going good."

Shields, who said Tuesday he was looking for a fresh start with Chicago, has now given up a combined 17 runs and four walks in his last two starts. In his last game with the San Diego Padres, the right-hander was pulled after throwing 79 pitches through 2 2/3 innings.

The White Sox finalized their trade for Shields on June 4, sending pitcher Erik Johnson and shortstop prospect Fernando Tatis Jr. to San Diego.