AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2006 > May > 01
Monday, May 1, 2006
Just one hit, that’s it
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It was a masterful performance by Tim Hudson, the kind that could someday place him in the pantheon of Braves pitching greats, if he can do it more frequently.
Hudson threw a one-hit shutout and retired the last 17 batters he faced Monday night in a 2-0 win against the Colorado Rockies at Turner Field, a thoroughly dominant performance against a team that was among baseball’s hottest.
“I feel like I’m starting to throw the ball the way I’m capable,” said Hudson, who had five strikeouts with three walks and recorded his ninth career shutout and second complete game in three starts.
Hudson also had the game-winning RBI on a second-inning single. One inning later, Rockies pitcher Jason Jennings singled through the right side, the only hit for the top-hitting team in the National League.
“One of his best games ever, for me,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said after Hudson threw the first one-hit complete game by a Brave since John Smoltz against Cincinnati in 1999. “That’s the old Tim Hudson.”
It’s the Hudson the Braves traded for in December 2004, but saw only glimpses of during an inconsistent first season for Atlanta.
Now they’ve seen it twice in 12 days, with this one topping the three-hitter to beat the Mets and Tom Glavine at Shea Stadium on April 19.
It was the 20th complete game for Hudson, who leads the majors with two this season after having none in 2005. His only other one-hitter was against the Chicago White Sox in 2000, when Frank Thomas had a broken-bat single early in the game.
“He’s a guy I know I’d never want to face,” said Braves catcher Brian McCann, who wore a T-shirt afterward inscribed with “I Rode Bodacious For Nine,” a reference to the outstanding movement that Hudson gets on his pitches.
Braves third-base coach Fredi Gonzalez had the shirts made recently and gave the first to Todd Pratt, who caught Hudson’s three-hitter at New York.
“They’re the hottest team in the league right now,” McCann said of the Rockies. “So for him to do that against a team like that, it’s awesome.”
The Rockies came in with a majors-leading 10-3 road record and a four-game winning streak after sweeping a weekend series at Florida.
They also had NL-leading batting averages of .290 overall and .314 on the road, the antithesis of Colorado teams that have often led the NL in home average at mile-high Coors Field and ranked near the bottom in road average.
Hudson (2-2) got help from second baseman Marcus Giles and third baseman Chipper Jones on a couple of difficult defensive plays. But for the most part, this was Hudson handling Colorado hitters with ease and efficiency.
“Like a hot knife through butter,” Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said.
Hudson admonished himself for giving up the only hit to a pitcher, but Jennings hit .382 with 17 homers at Baylor in 1999 when he was the consensus NCAA player of the year.
Hudson credits his recent improvement to pitching coach Roger McDowell, who noticed a flaw in his delivery two weeks ago after looking at side-by-side video of some of his best starts with Oakland and his first few starts this season.
McDowell showed Hudson that he wasn’t staying back as tall on the rubber as he used to, and was pitching more across his body as a result.
Hudson thinks the flaw may have contributed to his side strains the past two years, and lessened the downward movement of his sinker and other pitches.
“It’s something you’d have trouble noticing by yourself,” said Hudson, who threw his sinker about 80 percent of the time Monday, by McCann’s estimation.
He threw 66 strikes in 103 pitches, and needed only 51 pitches to get through the last five innings after walking two in the fourth.
It was his first official shutout since he threw a five-hitter at Baltimore in 2004. He limited Houston to four hits in nine shutout innings in a matchup with Roger Clemens on April 18, 2005, but got no decision in that 12-inning win.
Hudson provided a 1-0 lead with his single up the middle in the second inning, after McCann’s two-out single and a walk by Ryan Langerhans.
Giles added a two-out RBI single in the fourth, his third hit in five at-bats with runners in scoring position after an 0-for-10 start in those situations.
Edgar Renteria’s infield single in the first inning extended his hitting streak to 16 games, matching Felipe Alou’s streak in 1966 as the longest by an Atlanta hitter to begin a season.
The Braves got their second win in a row after a five-game losing streak. They’ll finish their two-game set with the Rockies tonight before starting a three-city trip Wednesday at Philadelphia.
Permalink | | Categories: Game Night
Leadoff? More like leadout
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now that Jeff Francoeur has applied the defibrillator paddles to his batting average and slugging percentage with four hits and a homer Sunday, we turn our attention to the other eyesore in the Braves lineup.
The .161 average from leadoff hitters. Let me repeat: one-sixty-one.
During the month of April, Braves pitchers hit for a higher average (.190) than Marcus Giles and Co. have from the leadoff spot. Got to mention pitchers also have a higher slugging percentage (.310 for Atlanta pitchers:.258 for Atlanta leadoff hitters) and only one fewer RBI and two fewer extra-base hits in 48 at-bats than for the leadoff guys in 93 at-bats.
That’s nearly unfathomable after 24 games.
Now, we all know Marcus Giles is not going to hit .192 all season. That’s his current average, including a .183 mark (13-for-71) from the leadoff spot.
But when Chipper, Andruw, Smoltz and others said after Rafael Furcal left that the Braves were really going to miss the shortstop, did anyone have any idea they’d miss him THIS MUCH?
(And yes, I realize that Furcal is stinkin’ up the joint offensively and defensively at L.A. right now, but that’s not the point — I’m comparing what he did while here to what the Braves are getting now from the leadoff spot).
Anyway, back to my point — what was my point?
Oh yeah, the point is, well, that the Braves simply must get far, far better production at the top of the order to properly utilize the talents of Nos. 2-4 hitters Renteria and the Joneses. (I know, I’m a genius for figuring that out; that’s what covering ball for 12 years will do for you — it gives you that inside knowledge that’s not so obvious to the laymen).
Giles said his achy finger — remember, the man sprained a ligament and also had a bone chip that’s still in there; it wasn’t simply a “jammed finger” as some have written — isn’t an excuse for his poor production. And true, he was struggling before he got hurt.
But it’s affecting him, surely. And this time, I do agree with Bobby Cox about the bad luck Giles has had recently. He’s smoked quite a few balls in the past week that have been right at people.
Nevertheless, the numbers are what they are, and they are ghastly. It’s not time to overreact and make changes, mostly because the Braves don’t have many, if any, viable options for leadoff. It’s not like Ryan Langerhans’ recent work has suggested he’s the man to move into the leadoff slot, though his first couple of weeks showed he could be a guy for the role when he’s going good. He’s got a high on-base percentage, or at least he did until he started whiffing a couple of weeks ago.
But for now, they’ll likely continue and wait for Giles to snap out of this. Pete Orr already showed he’s overmatched as a daily leadoff guy, and the kids — (Pena, Prado, et al) aren’t ready for that, even if there was a position for them to play, which there’s not.
Maybe Giles will have a four-hit game like Francoeur and make this situation better. But for now, the fact is that the Braves have a leadoff average that’s 35 points below the next-worst in the majors (Pittsburgh’s .196) and 84 points below any NL team’s leadoff average in 2005, when the worst was the Cubs’ .245. Braves leadoff hitters last year? They hit .295 with a .356 OBP and .439 slugging.
Even with Giles’ early flurry of walks and his better-than-typical leadoff power, the Braves currently have a .278 OBP and .258 slugging percentage from the No. 1 spot in their lineup, and the dropoff in production has coincided with the team’s overall offensive malaise.
Again, I know Giles will snap out of this. We’re talking about a guy who hit .305 with 116 doubles, 44 homers, 180 RBIs and a .377 OBP in 399 games over the 2003-05 seasons.
But man, he and the lineup had better get going soon if the Braves want to keep the Mets’ NL East lead in single digits.
After hitting .259 with a homer, 11 walks, a .474 OBP and nine runs in eight games through April 10, Giles is 8-for-51 (.157) with four walks, 12 strikeouts, a .218 OBP and four runs in his past 13 games.
He says it’s not the finger and it’s not the leadoff spot that’s killing him. Keep in mind 1,201 of Giles’ 1,507 at-bats in that three-year period came from the No. 2 spot in the order, and only 15 from the leadoff position.
The Braves better hope he’s fibbing about the finger.
