Hudson has stuff to do tonight
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Two puny infield singles over nine innings. That's all the Red Sox could muster the last time they faced Tim Hudson. For all their mighty cuts, the Sox came away with nothing more than harmless little bounce hits by Manny Ramirez and Nomar Garciaparra.
They never saw anything like Hudson's dominance this year, before or after the sinkerballer's sensational outing Aug. 11 in his complete-game, 4-0 victory against Pedro Martinez in Oakland. Of course, neither has Hudson -- ever.
"It would be ridiculous to say it wasn't the best I've ever thrown," Hudson said yesterday as he prepared to face Martinez tonight in Game 1 of the American League Division Series at Network Associates Coliseum. "I've probably had pitching lines that were just as good, but it wasn't against an offense such as Boston."
How good was Hudson that night? Kevin Millar, who struck out, grounded out, and bounced into a double play, described the righthander's performance as "the best game I've ever seen."
Good thing for the Sox that even Hudson, one of baseball's most dominant pitchers in recent years, has no expectation of matching his masterwork.
"It was one of the nights pitchers wish they could go out and do more often," he said. "But that's just not the case."
No kidding.
"If he could harness that, nobody would get any hits off him," Oakland manager Ken Macha said. "We would win all the games."
Of course, the A's need Hudson to win only two games in this series -- tonight's and Game 4 or 5 -- to drive a stake into the Sox. Which is why the Sox hope he performs nowhere near as well.
"The main thing we learned from it is that we hope he peaked right there and there is nowhere to go but down," Sox manager Grady Little said.
But expecting a precipitous decline from Hudson may be folly. At 80-33, Hudson has a .708 winning percentage, which trails only two pitchers in major league history who have logged at least 50 wins: Spud Chandler's .717 and Martinez's .712. No AL pitcher has won more games (69) than Hudson over the last four years and no one in the league this year held opponents to a lower slugging percentage (.308).
Only Martinez's ERA (2.22) was lower this year than Hudson's (2.70), and Hudson held batters to a .223 average, third-best in the league to Martinez (.215) and teammate Barry Zito (.219).
A sixth-round draft choice of the A's out of Auburn in 1997, Hudson, 28, wasted little time after his major league debut in 1999 flashing his potential, defeating both Martinez and Arizona's Randy Johnson to become only the second pitcher in major league history to defeat both Cy Young Award winners in the season they won the award (Montreal's Mike Thurman that year was the other).
"This guy is phenomenal," Millar said. "When he's got his stuff, he's good."
But he's also human. Sure, Hudson outdueled Martinez in their '99 meeting, allowing only one unearned run over eight-plus innings in a 6-2 victory at Fenway Park. Martinez surrendered three runs on seven hits over seven innings. But in their only showdown other than that and August's, Hudson pitched miserably April 15, 2000, getting torched at Fenway for seven runs on six hits and four walks in just 1 2/3 innings. Martinez was typically effective, rationing the A's two runs on five hits over seven innings.
"He had a pretty good game, but I didn't," Hudson said, stating the obvious.
Not that Hudson expects much less from Martinez than excellence.
"He's a stud," Hudson said. "I've looked up to him, watching his style of pitching and how he goes about his business out there. He has his reputation for a reason. He goes out there and gets the job done. He's going to be tough, but I like our chances anyway."
Hudson said he has fully recovered from a line drive he took off his pitching hand in August and from a ball that struck him in the leg last month. The injuries may have contributed to his subpar September, in which he went 2-3 with a 4.85 ERA. But Hudson finished the regular season strong, limiting the Rangers to two runs (one earned) on five hits over seven innings in a 5-3 victory Sept. 24.
"I don't think he had his best stuff in September until the last outing," Macha said. "The last outing was his best of the month. The ball was sinking good, he had good location, he pitched very well that day. We were very encouraged after that. I feel good he's going to go in with his good stuff."
Hudson has helped the A's with more than his arm. As Macha noted, he is "one of the emotional leaders," a role Hudson seemed to embrace even more after Oakland lost another of its aces, Mark Mulder, to a hip injury late in the season.
"He's an awesome pitcher, one of the toughest guys there is," said Johnny Damon, a former teammate. "Talk about MVP. He's had to carry that team. For him to step up with Mulder out is something. I'll take him on my team any day."
Tonight, though, Damon will be the first batter Hudson faces.
