PHILADELPHIA – Tim Hudson was bumped from his scheduled Friday start against the Phillies, but not because the Braves were trying to trade him.
Hudson’s had nagging neck stiffness for more than a month, and the 37-year-old pitcher and the Braves agreed it made sense to give him extra rest by switching turns with Paul Maholm, who had been scheduled to start Saturday. Hudson will start that middle game of the three-game series with the Phillies.
The decision was made at least two days ago – in time for Hudson and Maholm to reschedule their between-starts throwing sessions — but the Braves didn’t announce the change until about four hours before Friday night’s game, when they posted it on the team’s Twitter page.
“This time of year, get a little extra day here and there, it’s not a big deal,” Hudson said. “I mean, it’s only a good thing. I’ve had a little neck thing going on, but it’s not that big a deal. Just kind of getting some treatment on it. It was an opportunity to get a couple of extra days, so, take advantage of it whenever you can.”
Manager Fredi Gonzalez said the Braves told the Phillies late Thursday that Maholm would start Friday’s series opener and Hudson would be bumped to Saturday.
“We’ve known for about a couple of days, so it was an easy decision,” Gonzalez said. “Pauly falls into his normal day, and we move (Hudson) back another day. That’s it. Nothing more to that.”
Soon after the Braves announced the rotation switch Friday, baseball writer Peter Gammons posted on Twitter that Hudson “has let some former teammates know he thinks he could get dealt.”
Hudson said of that rumor: “I have no idea what he’s talking about. I haven’t said anything to anybody about getting dealt. I have no idea what he’s referring to.”
Hudson (4-7) is 0-6 with a 4.50 ERA in his past 10 starts, the longest winless period of his career. He went 0-3 despite a solid 2.45 ERA in six June starts, but the Braves scored an average of 1.56 runs per nine innings he pitched during the month, including no runs while he was in three games.
Because the Braves were off Monday, Maholm was on normal rest Friday, instead of getting the extra day he would’ve had if he pitched Saturday. Hudson will pitch on two more days of rest that usual since his start last Saturday against Arizona, when he gave up four runs in 5-2/3 innings and blew a pair of two-run leads.
That snapped a string of five consecutive quality starts by Hudson, who was upset – and said so in his postgame interview — that he wasn’t allowed to stay in the game to finish the sixth and try to get a decision. The Braves scored seven runs in the eighth inning of that 11-5 win.
Hudson said the neck had prevented him from doing some upper-body workouts, but that he didn’t think it had affected him during games, or at least not significantly.
“It’s just uncomfortable,” he said. “Anybody that’s had a stiff neck and tries to throw and move their head a lot and run and do things, it just makes it a little more challenging. When you’re out there playing and pitching (in games), you don’t really think about it too much….
“It was one of those things where about six weeks ago, you know, you wake up in hotel rooms and your neck feels like crap. Just over the course of the last six weeks, it’s been a pain in the butt. Or the neck.
“But, I mean, it’s not that big a deal, honestly. Something that’s just been kind of lingering for a better part of a month now. But it has gotten better over the last few days. I hadn’t been treating it for six weeks. I was only getting treatment on it since my last start.”
He said there was a lot of improvement from treatment he got during the week, but that the decision had already been made and there was no reason to reverse course after both pitchers had agreed to the switch.
“It’s just one of those things where it’s really not that big a deal — we can flip-flop, Pauly stays on turn,” he said. “I’ve actually made some strides the last couple of days; I could pitch tonight, but the decision was made. I pushed my bullpen back a couple of days and I threw a bullpen yesterday, instead of two days earlier.”
