CHICAGO -- It took James Shields 354 starts, 2,311 innings pitched and parts of 12 seasons before he made a trip to the disabled list.
"Sometimes, you have to go through that," the White Sox right-hander said. "I posted every start in my career, so this is kind of a rough one for me."
Shields, 35, was placed on the 10-day disabled list prior to Friday's contest (retroactive to April 18) with a strained right lat. He felt the issue during his last start Sunday against the Twins at Target Field, but managed to get through that appearance while allowing one run in six innings.
Mike Pelfrey took Shields' place in the rotation for Saturday's game. But the veteran doesn't believe this absence will be extended.
"Yeah, I mean, it's very mild. So it's nothing too crazy," Shields said. "I tried to pitch through it the last start, and ended up getting through the start, and actually pitched pretty well. But didn't feel comfortable out there at all.
"We tried to do things between this last start [and Friday], and just wasn't feeling good yesterday, so decided to take a few days off. I've pitched through a lot of pain in my career. This is just something that normally I fight through it and pitch with it."

"But this is one of those things where I don't want to hinder the team by me going out there," Shields added. "If anything happened in the first inning, I would tax our bullpen. There's a lot of intangibles that went into it. I tried to make it all the way to the last day, and it just wasn't feeling good yesterday."
Asked to describe the soreness, Shields explained he's simply not feeling good when throwing. Knowing he's doing the right thing, though, doesn't make it any easier for the durable Shields to go to the DL. He has made at least 31 starts in every season since 2007, and last season marked the first one during that span where he fell short of 200 innings.
"It's always tough. No matter what," Shields said. "Nobody wants to go on the DL. Especially me. I'm not that guy. I want to make my start as much as I possibly can, and I did everything I possibly could to try to make this start. It's tough for me. But again, a 12-season run of not being on the DL is pretty good."
"He feels good about it. Here's a guy who knows his body," White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. "He knows what he's gotta do to get himself ready. He's been doing a really nice job. Hopefully he'll be back soon."