CHICAGO — The Braves got a vintage Tim Hudson pitching performance Wednesday afternoon at Wrigley Field, but wasted it in a 1-0 loss to the Cubs.
They didn’t hit a lot of balls hard against left-hander Paul Maholm. And on most occasions when they did, there was a Cubs defender waiting to snag it. Sometimes in the darndest places.
Tweaked defensive alignments and Maholm’s craftiness helped Chicago defeat the Braves in a game that lasted barely two hours and gave the last-place Cubs a series win over the Braves.
“The shift won them the game today,” said Chipper Jones, who had two potential hits taken away by defenders aligned out of position, yet perfectly positioned. “It lost them the game last night. So, you live with it you’re going to die by it.”
Hudson (1-1) allowed one run on five hits and no walks and threw just 73 pitches before he was removed for pinch-hitter Tyler Pastornicky in the eighth inning, after the Cubs scored a run in the seventh on Bryan LaHair’s two-out ground-ball single through the left side when the Braves were in a shift of their own.
“It’s disappointing,” said Hudson, a veteran sinkerballer who bounced back from Friday’s rough start at Coors Field. “I was making some pretty good pitches. The best I’ve felt this year. I feel like we should have won the game, even though their guy was throwing the ball well. I felt like we should have come out on top.”
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said, “Huddy was outstanding. So much that if he would have come out of the seventh inning with no runs, I was thinking about letting him hit in the eighth because he was that dominant.”
Pastornicky struck out to lead off the eighth, and Dan Uggla flied out with two runners on to end the inning.
After pounding out 42 hits and 29 runs in their three-game sweep against the Rockies at Colorado, the Braves totaled 19 hits and four runs in three games against the Cubs, losing two. They are 4-2 on a nine-game trip that will finish with a three-game series at St. Louis beginning Friday.
Maholm (4-2) allowed three hits and three walks in seven innings and won his four consecutive start while allowing one or no runs. After giving up six runs in four innings in each of his first two this season, he’s 4-0 with a 1.07 ERA in his past four.
“I thought we had some balls hit right at people with people in scoring position,” Gonzalez said. “They did a nice job defending us there.”
Maholm, an ex-Pirate, is 2-1 with a career-best 1.34 ERA in seven starts against the Braves, and 60-88 with a 4.39 ERA in 210 starts against everyone else.
“We hit some balls hard,” Ross said. “I thought they were real lucky with positioning today. I thought Chipper Jones could have had four hits.”
With runners on the corners and two out in the sixth, Jones hit a line drive up the middle caught by second baseman Darwin Barney standing behind the base.
Maholm’s teams have scored only one run while he has been in the game in five of his starts against the Braves and two runs while he was in the others.
“He’s a guy that’s going to keep you off-balance,” Jones said. “When you get your opportunities you’ve got to take advantage of them. We thought we did, but we hit right into the shift. So give him his due, he pitched well.”
Still, Ross said it was a particularly tough loss to swallow.
“[Hudson] shouldn’t have given up a hit,” Ross said. “He was as dominant as ever. Stuff-wise, he was as good as I’ve ever caught him. It stinks we didn’t score for him.”
