Capper to miserable weekend: Now even Hudson is mediocre
Deja vu all over again: Tim Hudson disgusted and Albert Pujols homering. (Curtis Compton/AJC)
Last week I blogged about the three players whom I viewed as being the keys to the Braves’ playoff hopes down the stretch, led by the non-clutch-hitting likes of Derrek Lee.
There didn’t seem to be a reason to list Tim Hudson as one of the keys because, well, I just assumed greatness. Big mistake.
After losses by Georgia, Georgia Tech and the Falcons, Hudson brought the Atlanta Sports Weekend From Hell to an appropriate ending Sunday night. He turned mediocre.
Hudson was slammed for six runs, nine hits, two moonshots by Albert Pujols, two walks, a hit batter and a wild pitch in five innings. He also allowed an RBI single to pitcher Kyle Lohse (.192) and a two-run triple to No. 9 hitting Brendan Ryan (.224). The Braves lost to St. Louis, 7-3, to fell one game back of Philadelphia in the National League East.
About those keys to the postseason, let’s start over: If Hudson is not the shut-down pitcher he has been for most of this season, the Braves have almost no shot of reaching the postseason. And right now, he is far from a shutdown pitcher.
The Braves don’t have the hitting to support erratic starting pitching, and they don’t have another starter at Hudson’s level. Or at least what Hudson’s level used to be.
“I just didn’t make some pitches,” Hudson said. “They made me pay for it, especially right there in that [four-run] fifth inning.”
When asked how he felt physically, given the drop-off in his recent starts, he said: “I feel fine. Tonight was really the only game in the last few when I felt like I wasn’t in a rhythm from start to finish. Some of the other games it seemed like there was one inning that would kind of get me. … Tonight was a struggle from the start.”
Hudson (15-8) has lost three straight starts (ERA: 5.59). He actually has won just once in his last six outings (1-3 with two no decisions). It kills any chance for a 20-win season, but the bigger issue is the damage that it has done to the Braves’ playoff hopes.
As Hudson said, he really hadn’t been beat up until Sunday. The previous two losses: He allowed four runs (three earned) in seven innings in a 4-2 defeat to the New York Mets on Sept. 2 and threw 6 1/3 shutout innings against Pittsburgh last Tuesday before getting dented in the seventh for four runs in a 5-0 loss.
The problem is the Braves’ margin for error is so small, they can’t afford to have their No. 1 pitcher level off.
The timing couldn’t be worse.
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Earlier posts, now on demand . . .
♦ LIVE: Can Braves end Losersville Weekend?
♦ Bulldogs or Jackets — which team worries you more?
♦ Georgia Tech doesn’t look ACC ready, starting with defense
♦ Weekend Predictions: Dogs break chains, upset Poultry
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129 comments Add your comment
JSS
September 13th, 2010
12:03 am
Welcome home chickens! I see you came home to roost!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgSPaXgAdzE
The Atlanta Theme song!
Concerned Fan
September 13th, 2010
12:19 am
The Braves need to win these games. Maybe the pitchers need to watch film on opposing hitters so they can learn what pitches they tend to strike out on. If they can not handle St. Louis then they will not be able to handle the Phillies. They have an opportunity to make it to the postseason which does not come along every year and would hate to see them lose this chance.
DonG
September 13th, 2010
12:24 am
Huddy is tired. Bobby still cannot manage pitchers in a game. Should have been pulled after the hit batter. I do not see this team making the post season and that is unfortunate!
ABravesFan
September 13th, 2010
12:36 am
18 more games in the regular season and the Braves definitely still control their destiny, which is great (and should be fun). Just as easily as it is for Hudson to lost “it”, Huddy or someone else can easily step up and win some games against the odds.
Sure, there are plenty of reasons to be concerned about the Braves’s starting pitching (Huddy’s recent struggle, Hanson’s inconsistency at times, Lowe’s elbow or even his effectiveness when healthy, Minor’s recent loss of some velocity, and JJ’s last start and overall performance on the road) but these are also the guys that have got it done enough time to get to this point.
Instead of fretting about how the sky is falling and some tough luck on hard hit balls, it’s time for us Braves fans to embrace being in the midst of a pennant race with actually good odds to win (unlike the last few years when we were in the equivalent of the Cardinal’s position).
Reid Adair
September 13th, 2010
12:39 am
The better Braves have carried this team as far as they can. They’ve simply gotten worn out with the likes of Kenshin Kawakami, Nate McLouth, Derrek Lee, Troy Glaus, Rick Ankiel, Melky Cabrera and others on their shoulders.
It’s a shame for so much success to fade here at the end, but it was coming. It was inevitable.
Thanks, Frank Wren.
ajc pariah
September 13th, 2010
12:42 am
Pujols,Howard,Bonds.Bobby.he gonna pitch to them.He be damned to walk one of them.What a glutton for punishment.
wes antrum
September 13th, 2010
1:00 am
…and the Dream lost! WHY DOES GOD HATE US!
edward
September 13th, 2010
1:15 am
Bobby sent Nate to the minors when he was slumping _ when is he going to ship Lee & cabrea ?
Mitchell
September 13th, 2010
1:19 am
I really don’t know at this point which would be the more ideal scenario.
The Braves managing to hang on and at least win the Wild Card or they completely choke again for the second straight year and Terry Pendleton, Roger McDowell and Chino Cadahia are fired and replaced by people who aren’t useless.
Either way the season will likely end with another team celebrating on our field at the end of the season.
Bobby will be sure to give a final gift to one special team out there in addition to the thirteen he offerered up from ‘91 to ‘05.
Plus, he’s humble. It will be his way of say “You shouldn’t have” for all those little going-away momentos he’s gotten this year.
Mitchell
September 13th, 2010
1:21 am
That redundant third sentence was redundant.
Reggie
September 13th, 2010
1:40 am
Wow what a terrible weekend, @wes antrum, great point about the Dream losing as well. Even my son’s 11-12 year old football team got beat this weekend…never before in history have i ever looked forward to Monday…except now TGIM.
gayle
September 13th, 2010
2:31 am
A Braves fan – the benefit of being in first place is that you control your destiny. If you are not in first place, you do not control your destiny. How hard is that to figure out. If the Phillies win their remaining games, they will earn the championship of the NL East.
The Braves had their chance and they have let it go – they play as though they are trying not to lose. The Phillies and Giants are playing with enthusiasm and intensity – and they are winning. The benefit of such a long season is that the cream rises to the top and the best teams move on to the playoffs.
Idot
September 13th, 2010
2:53 am
Hudson will bounce back.
Chpatt
September 13th, 2010
3:07 am
Gayle – if you lead the wild card, you control your own destiny. you. are. a. dunce. The braves lead the wild card, so they control their own destiny. It’s their’s to lose.
nashvillewill
September 13th, 2010
3:13 am
I am sorry and sad to have to admit that this Braves team is just far too mediocre in far too many areas to make the tournament. Fielding: mediocre (Infante and McCann make at least one mental, if not attributed, error each game; Mcan’t get down and in front to block errant pitches to his right; Infante’s natural position is not second and he shows it); Hitting: medocre (Nothing of note from hitters playing LF except Diaz since July; Nothing of note from IB since Glaus stopped hitting in June; Really nothing from CD until McLouth the last few games; Too much inconsistency from Escobar/Gonzales). Pitching: better than average, but no “lights out” guys besides Venters and Kimbrel and they’re rookies. Prado and Heyward have carried this team and that’s not enough. Now Hudson is slipping. Too many holes and not enough talent, enthusiasm, or team management.
Let’s look forward to next year with new players, holes filled, and NEW MANAGER!
Lobosolo
September 13th, 2010
3:15 am
Crappy fans and a crappy writer… Bad way to end the weekend, indeed…
Kenshin Kawakami
September 13th, 2010
3:34 am
Guys? Guys?
This weekend's games were almost as bad as...
September 13th, 2010
3:54 am
This weekend’s games were almost as bad as a “Rizzoli & Isles” marathon.
Sad Fan
September 13th, 2010
5:37 am
The Braves played to their potential and peaked in late June. Now the real talent of this team is showing and the fact is, there is none. Too many changes with no longer productive players and Melkey constantly in the lineup and no fielding abilities what so ever. Bobby had a chance to go out in style but his stubborn managing style is only going to allow him to go out in defeat. Too bad. Up until the last couple of years I thought he was one of the best in baseball. No longer is that true.
LJ
September 13th, 2010
5:38 am
Bobby does’nt realize when a pitcher is off for a game. He sticks with them too long. Also you have to pitch around some of the better hitters. You can’t bitch about McLouth’s bat lately.
Sid Bream
September 13th, 2010
6:02 am
I was at the game Friday night with my 5 year old son. With McLouth batting, he looks at the scoreboard and tells me, “Daddy, he has out in his name.” Pretty funny I thought, but Nate’s out has quickly changed from easy out to out of the park. Braves will score enough runs to make playoffs, but will they allow to many? Pitching is a giant ??? every day now.
Plate Appearance
September 13th, 2010
6:22 am
TIM WILL BE BACK!
He’s much too quality of a pitcher to continue to struggle.
Take Adam Wainwright as an example. He had some difficult starts in losing his last four games before pitching well again against the Braves in this series.
But the Braves do need to give Tim some better run support in the early innings. He’s gotten far too little run support of late.
A clutch hit here or there early on could have changed the entire complexion of the game.
Dan
September 13th, 2010
7:21 am
The Dream? For all 10 or 12 people who care about girls basketball I’m sure that was news.
Starting Nine - Philled In
September 13th, 2010
7:28 am
[...] Those footsteps the Braves have been hearing for six weeks must’ve been pretty loud. They’re now a team looking for an identity, writes Dave O’Brien, and the losses just keep coming — even with Tim Hudson on the mound. [...]
SimpleDawg
September 13th, 2010
7:33 am
Oh well, the Fantasy Island Tour is over…..back to your seaplane, and back to your unfulfilled little lives back in reality.
The meek may inherit the earth, but the mediocre inherit nothing but disappointment and heartache.
We all drank the Kool-Aide….only to discover that it mixed by Jim Jones.
Ugh !
Pidgeon
September 13th, 2010
7:44 am
Well let’s see……..UGA lost, Ga Tech lost, Ga State lost, Ga Southern lost, the Falcons lost, the Braves lost, the Dream lost………..was there ANY team in Georgia that won this weekend??? Somebody PLEASE tell me at least one team won!!! What happened to Valdosta State, Shorter, West Georgia, etc, etc, etc?!?!?!?! Did ANYBODY win????
Herschel Talker
September 13th, 2010
7:46 am
Schultzie:
It’s over. Stick a fork in ‘em.
HT
SickandTired
September 13th, 2010
8:01 am
Hey Jeff, this week should bring back some great memories. Remember six years ago when Saint Mark of Bowden inspired what is my favorite all time column you wrote. Your “put a smile on his face” article. Then he has the audacity to get snippy with you. Tell you what, go to Athens and ask him this week if he told Hutson Mason he was sorry he didn’t get him in the game and that he’d put a smile on his face before he left UGA…..That would be priceless.
Dawgfan13
September 13th, 2010
8:06 am
Based on our stats we will win 3 of the remaining road games and 6 of the remaining home games. That means we go 9 and 9 on the remaining games finishing @ 91 wins and 71 losses. I don’t think that will cut it as Colorado is coming on fast and I believe they will win the Wild Card. For all those who say it’s just one game loss go back and look at games like the Colorado game where we blew a 10 to 1 lead or the blown saves, errors, fundemental failures like not being able to bunt runners over or cover first base. If we had just pulled throug on a few more of these it would be a differnet story. I guess the good thing for the fans is that we were in 1st place for quite a spell and the pieces appear to be there to build on next year. I HOPE I AM WRONG ON THE REMAINING GAMES AND WE PULL IT OUT. Afterall I will root for my team no matter what!
Bullwinkle
September 13th, 2010
8:12 am
Here you go, Pidgeon:
Valdosta State 45, Newberry SC 17
Braves Fall to Pujols, Cardinals 7-3 | Tomahawk Take | An Atlanta Braves Blog
September 13th, 2010
8:17 am
[...] I thought Jeff Schultz’s Monday morning column with the headline “Capper to a miserable … could pretty much sum up the events that took place at Turner Field on Sunday night. After a less than stellar weekend with the local sports scene, Atlanta faithful turned their attention to the Braves and Tim Hudson to try salvage something from the weekend. However Albert Pujols and the St Louis Cardinals were having none of it on this night. Jason Heyward continues his push for NL Rookie of the Year. Photo Courtesy of Tim Evearitt [...]
robdawg08
September 13th, 2010
8:24 am
Bad weekend for Georgia sports. We look like losersville x 1000 right now.
Cecil34
September 13th, 2010
8:26 am
Games lost in April come back to haunt you in September, and with the Braves, it is a nightmare.
Cox and his staff more times than not bring a team out of spring training that is neither trained, or in any kind of shape.
This is because Cox views the season as a marathon so he doesn’t push his boys too hard down at Disney, preferring to turn a blind eye to the volume of golf, fishing, drinking and banging that take place.
Therefore, it takes the team all of April to get going. Usually with a horrendous record in that month.
I sincerely hope that the new coaching regime puts a little more emphasis on the fundementals at spring training, not the “fun” dementals Cox approves of.
Dalmore
September 13th, 2010
8:27 am
The performances of Lee and Cabrera continue to be pathetic, to the point of embarrassment. You get 27 outs in a ballgame. Lee, Cabrera, and the pitcher’s spot are essentially 12 automatic outs before the game even starts. That’s 45% of your outs already given! And, if Ankiel is in center, you can make that 4 more, for 16 — almost 60% of your outs quota. Hopefully, McLouth’s little spurt if sustainable. Otherwise, our batters 1 thru 4 have to beat the 1 thru 8 hitters on every other team.
ben
September 13th, 2010
8:29 am
Enter your comments here
Let's Go
September 13th, 2010
8:33 am
Everyone likes to blame Bobby for his so called “Mis-Management” of the pitching staff but I think at some point Roger McDowell has to be held accountable. A pitching coach is suppose to advise and assist the manager with pitching decisions as well as help identifing and fixing problems with a pitcher. When the team isn’t hitting everyone jumps on the fire Terry Pendelton bandwagon so maybe it’s time to fire Roger McDowell.
WonderDawg
September 13th, 2010
8:39 am
robdawg08, I think it’s been that way for about 5 years . . .
At least Valdosta High and Lowndes High held up the State of Georgia’s honor, both beating tough Florida high school teams Friday night.
And the badass Camden County High beat the nation’s # 2 team from Miami the Friday before.
Sadly, those will probably be the only victories vs Florida this season for Georgia.
Gen Neyland
September 13th, 2010
8:52 am
If it were only Big Al that whacked Hudson, I’d understand, for Big Al has done well with Timmy on the hill. Hudson is slumping a bit and with only a few starts left in the season, he needs to get it figured out now…1 game back isn’t 10.
Steve-o
September 13th, 2010
8:52 am
Why does Bobby refuse to start Diaz over Cabrera? Is Diaz injured, or is Bobby just being stubborn in leaving awful “Melk Dud” in there?
Gatorman
September 13th, 2010
8:59 am
Although Hudson has pitched well for most of the year, he’s falling back to where he was last year (at the end). When the games are important, Cox always falls back to the old guys, thinking experience is better some how than younger more talented players. He did it in the 5 world series (won one) and he did it yesterday. He’s just an old man, too old to change.
Adam
September 13th, 2010
9:00 am
You mean a guy coming off Tommy John Surgery and has pitched over 200 innings has reached a point where he’s ineffective? Weird. He’s going to be worse unless you get him some rest, which you can’t afford to do at this point because you’re in second place. It would have been nice to have him go into the post season with 170-180 innings he might have been less worn out.
JSS
September 13th, 2010
9:07 am
Ft. Valley State won, Georgia Military College won; but they are not in N. Georgia so I guess that’s not really something to count on….
Herschel Talker
September 13th, 2010
9:08 am
“Why does Bobby refuse to start Diaz over Cabrera?”
In case you haven’t realized it yet, the man is blindly loyal, stubborn moron.
Steve-o
September 13th, 2010
9:15 am
Herschel,
That’s what I figured… but since Cox didn’t even bring in Diaz to pinch hit in recent games, I thought there was a long-shot chance that Diaz was actually injured. Just Bobby being the great manager he is!!
Ken Shelton
September 13th, 2010
9:18 am
It’s been a nice ride into the sunset for Bobby Cox, at least if you could wipe the slate clean from September. Much like the glory of the 1990’s the Braves rode to heights with great pitching, and obviously fell victim with lack of those same hurlers on the mound. Whether it is simply tired arms or what, none of the four relied upon arms deemed starters, with Huddy, DLow, or others are likely to mow down opponents. Consider a lineup with no ’star-power’, with Chipper missing-in-action, with exception of maybe McCann and not much is left. Exciting as it’s been with so many 7th inning on coming from behinds, reality dictates odds were be better with bookmakers in Vegas to win big payoffs than to always rely on such heroics to continue. While I, too feel our beloved Skipper donning his soon-to-be-retired number 6 jersey deserves the praise he’s been receiving by game announcers and visiting ball teams alike, too many bad decision, with less-than-capable players make the lineup nightly, exampled by Melky Cabrera, who to have only four home runs and some 30 RBI’s when he has played almost every game this late in the season. The same senseless reasoning goes into adding his name to the lineup card as say, went into calling on Greg Norton to the plate last year? Rick Ankiel in my opinion is no better than a good-hitting picture, (granted he hasn’t took to the mound in several years, but consider he only has mustered one solid season as a hitter). I, too would love to root out a mighty ‘Tomahawk Chop” and witness Bobby’s last stand see the team play into October, but there’s virtually every reason to think that feat is a long-shot at best!
The Philadelphia Phillies...
September 13th, 2010
9:23 am
are the Class of the National League.
MitchC
September 13th, 2010
9:23 am
Jeff, the Braves have very serious problems. We really need a sweep at home against Washington, because, as we know, after that, we have a killer road trip coming up.
I dont want to be negative, but, with us having blown a seven game lead, and now having fallen behind Philly, I’m starting to think wild card, especially with the schedule we have. We need to sweep Washington, try to survive and play about 500 ball on the road trip, and then come home, and run the table, against the Marlins and Phillies. If we do that, we might make the playoffs.
If the Braves are sitting home this October, instead of playing ball, be it as the NL East champs, or the wold card, this will be our most disappointing collapse ever. We still have a chance, but we need to start winning.
Right now, the way we are playing, the road trip next week scares the heck out of me. If we aren’t careful, it might well be our swan song of the 2010 season.
Philly Phil
September 13th, 2010
9:25 am
The Phils will win this division easily–count on it. The braves better worry about the giants for the wild card slot. Phils-Yankees—world series.
bvillebaron
September 13th, 2010
9:26 am
Miserable weekend? The Braves split against a team that many picked to win the NL Central this year which, for some reason, has the third best record against teams with winning records and a poor record against losing teams. The Cardinals also were desparate because they don’t think they are out of the wild card race. They also faced their two best pitchers, Wainwright and Carpenter, and routed the latter. The Braves finished the weekend ONE WHOLE GAME behind the Phillies (who they still play 6 more times) and one game up in the wild card. Give me a break. Hudson has had a couple of rough games, but he will be fine.
Dr. Kenneth Noisewater
September 13th, 2010
9:32 am
Correct JS- what a miserable, painful weekend for the Atlanta Natives. Seems like whenever UGA/GT loses, the Falcons lose. Throw in the Braves and hey, even the Dream lost. It’s like a quad-fecta (sp) or quin-fecta. This city is cursed again. At least i did well in my fantasy football team.