Angels lose game, Shields

It was nothing like the seven-run, nine-hit pounding Ervin Santana absorbed a day earlier, but Angels starter Joe Saunders suffered a few Nix and cuts Tuesday night.

Jayson Nix, a utility infielder who missed April because of a strained right quadriceps, hit a pair of solo home runs off Saunders, and Bartolo Colon threw a 6 2/3 -inning gem at his former team to lead the Chicago White Sox to a 4-2 victory in Angel Stadium.

Afterward, the Angels put reliever Scot Shields, who has tried to grit his way through the season on an injured left knee, on the 15-day disabled list because of patella tendinitis.

“You never want to be on the DL, but it came to a point where that was enough,” said Shields, who is 1-3 with a 6.62 earned-run average in 20 games. “I have to get this right so I can help the team later in the year.”

Shields, one of baseball’s best setup men from 2005 to 2008, faced two batters in the seventh inning Tuesday night, walking one and getting one to ground out to first, a play on which the right-hander covered the bag.

Manager Mike Scioscia said he noticed Shields “laboring” to cover first, but Shields said he was hurting long before that play.

“Today, I wasn’t even thinking about the hitters; I was thinking about how much pain there would be,” Shields said.

“When it came to that point, I was like, I can’t go on like that. I was hurting the whole time tonight.”

Shields will be out for at least a month, and he hopes to rehabilitate the knee with exercises and therapy. He had several good outings this month, but his season has been marked by inconsistency.

“It’s affecting his delivery and putting him at a heightened risk that we’re not comfortable with,” Scioscia said. “We’re going to shut him down for a couple of weeks and see if we can manage it.”

Colon, who won the American League Cy Young Award with the Angels in 2005 but missed much of 2006 and 2007 because of shoulder problems, gave the White Sox a shut-down performance Tuesday night.

Though the right-hander has lost a few miles an hour on his fastball, he moved the pitch around the strike zone well enough to limit the Angels to one run and four hits. He struck out three and walked none.

“He didn’t do anything we didn’t expect,” Scioscia said. “He worked both sides of the plate with good movement.”

Saunders pitched out of a runner-on-third, no-outs jam in the third inning and a two-on, no-outs jam in the fourth, but Nix, who began the game with a .194 average in 36 at-bats, snapped a scoreless tie in the fifth with a home run to left.

Paul Konerko’s run-scoring single in the sixth made it 2-0, and Nix led off the seventh by lining his fourth homer of the season to left for a 3-0 lead.

Bobby Abreu broke up Colon’s shutout with a homer to center in the bottom of the seventh, his first homer in 148 at-bats this season.

Jermaine Dye’s RBI single in the top of the ninth pushed Chicago ahead, 4-1. Torii Hunter’s 11th homer, a solo shot in the bottom of the ninth, made it 4-2, and Juan Rivera singled with two out, but Mike Napoli popped to second to end the game.

The White Sox backed Colon with four superb plays, one coming on a questionable gamble by Hunter, who was gunned down by Scott Podsednik trying to advance to third on Kendry Morales’ second-inning fly ball into the left-field corner.

The inning ended with Nix, the second baseman, making a back-hand, diving stop of Rivera’s shot up the middle and throwing to first for the out.

Shortstop Alexei Ramirez made a diving stop of Napoli’s fifth-inning grounder and threw to first to the end the inning and opened the sixth ranging to his left for Howie Kendrick’s grounder, spinning 360 degrees and firing to first for the out.

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mike.digiovanna@latimes.com