WASHINGTON– He pitched seven strong innings and retired the last 17 batters he faced, but it was Tim Hudson's head-first slide across home plate in his warmup jacket that Braves teammates will remember most from Sunday.
“Play of the year,” catcher Brian McCann said, smiling. “That was awesome.”
Hudson’s fifth-inning gallop and slide into highlight reels and memory banks turned out to be the winning run in an 11-2 rout against Washington at Nationals Park.
Leadoff man Martin Prado went 3-for-5 with two doubles and McCann had three hits and four RBIs for the Braves, who scored six runs in the eighth inning to blow the game open and clinch a 2-1 season-opening series win.
Despite all the offense, the play teammates were talking about was "The Slide." It was a bold, unrestrained act by their 35-year-old ace, diving head-first to score a run in what was a one-run game at the time.
Third baseman Chipper Jones was asked if he held his breath when Hudson slid.
“I was too busy laughing; it was hilarious,” said Jones, who added, when asked to critique the slide: “Not bad. He’s going to have to get a new jacket.”
Hudson (1-0) did superficial damage to the jacket and to a knee, which was scraped. It might’ve been the first time he slid face-first at home since his days as a two-way star at Auburn, where he was Southeastern Conference Player of the Year in 1997.
“This is the first time I’ve had a strawberry in a long time,” he said. “Battle wound.”
Hudson was charged with three hits, one run and one walk with five strikeouts in seven innings, improving to 11-2 with a 1.88 ERA in 19 starts against the Nationals.
He gave up a run in the first inning on a walk, a wild pitch and Adam LaRoche’s single, coupled with an obstruction call against Jones for colliding with Jayson Werth as Werth ran from second to third on his way home. (Werth was thrown out, but awarded the run.)
“A little exciting there in that first inning,” Hudson said. “First game, little adrenaline, wasn’t quite making some pitches that I wanted to make. But both of us, me and [Nationals starter Jordan] Zimmerman, settled in. He had some quick innings himself.”
A key play came in Washington’s second inning, after Danny Espinoza’s leadoff single with the score 1-1. Next up was Ivan Rodriguez, who entered with a .444 average and two homers in 36 at-bats against Hudson.
Rodriguez grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, the first of 17 consecutive batters retired by Hudson before he left the game.
“His stuff was on today,” said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose Braves won their first series of the post-Bobby Cox era, and open a four-game series Monday at Milwaukee. “He was sharp, his command was good. That was nice to see.”
McCann singled in a run in the first inning, and the score was tied until the Braves’ fifth. Alex Gonzalez led off the inning with a triple and scored on Freddie Freeman's groundout before Hudson drew a walk.
Prado followed with a double to the right-center gap. Hudson went from first to third, stopped, then made a mad dash to the plate when Espinosa mishandled the relay throw.
By the time Espinosa gathered it and threw home, Hudson could have scored without sliding. Teammates were glad he wasn’t aware of that. And that he slid. Head-first.
“If there’s a play that tops that -- I don’t know if there will be all season long for us,” McCann said, grinning. “That was awesome. He’s been wanting to do that for 10 years.”
Fredi Gonzalez said he didn’t say anything to Hudson afterward about the slide.
“It’s him. You don’t want to make that a habit, but it was good,” he said. “This guy is an athlete. This guy is a baseball player. He just happens to pitch. You know that from his bubble gum card when he was at Auburn. He runs the bases, he fields his position, he does everything you want him to do.”
Nationals starter Zimmerman limited the Braves to four hits in six innings, but they torched the bullpen for eight hits and eight runs, including six hits off three relievers in the eighth inning. Jason Heyward had two hits in the inning, and Nate McLouth and Chipper Jones had back-to-back RBI doubles.
