SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Four pitches into his first appearance of the spring -- all balls to Alex Gordon, none near the strike zone -- Scot Shields was perplexed.
"That first hitter," the Angels set-up man said, "I don't know what the heck happened there."
Shields made a quick adjustment, lowering his arm slot and locating the strike zone, and of his 16 pitches, nine were strikes.
Though he gave up a two-run home run to Damon Hollins on a shoulder-high fastball, Shields was encouraged by his one-inning outing in Thursday's 6-5 exhibition loss to the Kansas City Royals.
"It was a good day for the most part -- the ball was coming out of my hand in mid-season form, and there was no pain," said Shields, who was slowed this spring by a sore shoulder.
"The home run was such a mistake, it was so high up, most guys wouldn't get much on it. He tomahawked it.
"But overall, I felt awesome. It would have been nice not to give up a home run, but I felt good."
Closer Francisco Rodriguez also said he "felt really strong" despite giving up a run and two hits in the fifth, his first blemish of the spring after going one-two-three in his first two outings.
Rodriguez, who threw primarily fastballs and changeups, had command problems -- of his 22 pitches, only 11 were strikes -- but showed good velocity.
"He was trying to be too fine," Manager Mike Scioscia said. "He was working on his changeup and couldn't find the release point."
Double feature
Angels starter Joe Saunders threw four scoreless innings, giving up two hits and walking two, and the left-hander was backed by some timely defense.
With two on and one out in the first, second baseman Howie Kendrick fielded Billy Butler's hard grounder and flipped to shortstop Erick Aybar to start a double play.
With runners on first and third and one out in the third, Esteban German grounded to third baseman Chone Figgins, who threw to Kendrick to start a double play.
"With our infield, I said, 'Here, hit it on the ground, we'll make the play,' " Saunders said. "With runners in scoring position, they got me out of some jams. It's nice having that confidence in them."
Rookie mistake
What can Brown do for you? Plenty, if you forget to pack your game jersey in your bag before boarding the bus for Surprise, as veteran center fielder Torii Hunter did.
