Orange County Register

Losing a second straight game to the Chicago White Sox wasn’t the worst thing that happened to the Angels Tuesday night.

Far from it.

Manager Mike Scioscia lost one of his biggest luxuries for the past seven years _ reliever Scot Shields. Not only was Shields good enough to pitch for Team USA in the WBC the past two tournaments, he was a virtual everyday bridge for Scioscia to get to his closer.

Not this year, as Shields (3 blown saves, 6.62 ERA) has struggled with his command and proven highly unpredictable.

The Angels bowed to the seemingly inevitable Tuesday and placed Shields on the 15-day disabled list with patella tendinitis that has been killing him most of the season.

Shields, who came up in 2001, had never been to the DL before last season.

“Scotty’s a tough kid. He’s not a guy that really gives in to little nicks and he doesn’t give in to situations out on the mound,” Scioscia said. “He’s mentally tough and physically tough. For him to really scuffle that bad, we need to take some time off here and get him at a manageable level.”

Shields had two months to rest his knee over the winter and still felt pain starting this spring, so it’s unclear how much time he’ll need to get healthy. The pain reached a crescendo Tuesday night.

“There were some good days, but today I wasn’t even thinking about the hitters. I was just thinking about how much pain is this going to be?” Shields said. “When it came to that point, I was just like, ‘I can’t go on like that.’ “

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