Lance Berkman still remembers Rice coach Wayne Graham’s rants at the 1997 College World Series as the Owls were being dispatched by a small, hard-throwing right-hander from Auburn.
“He’s like, `You guys stink. What’s wrong? Why can’t you guys hit this guy?'” Berkman said. “I’m like, `Coach, the ball’s moving all over the place.’ We come to find out it was Tim Hudson that had started against us.”
Hudson, the Atlanta Braves right-hander who will face Astros left-hander Andy Pettitte on Wednesday in the Game 1 of best-of-five NL Division Series, crushed Berkman’s Owls 10-1 to eliminate them from the College World Series.
So while some folks act as though the Astros are catching a break by not facing John Smoltz on Wednesday, Berkman understands perfectly how tough the task will be against Hudson at Turner Field.
By 2000, Hudson had become an American League All-Star, prompting Berkman to call his old college coach.
“I called coach Graham and was like, `Hey, what do you think about that guy now?’ He said, `Well, I have to give you guys a break on that one,'” Berkman said.
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Hudson, the 1997 Southeastern Conference player of the year, established himself as one of the premier pitchers in the majors when he went 11-2 as a rookie in 1999 with the Oakland A’s and won 20 games the next season.
Hudson, 30, hasn’t taken a step back in his first season since Oakland traded him to the Braves.
“Well, any time you think about Atlanta Braves baseball you think about postseason and success,” said Hudson, who was 14-9 with a 3.52 ERA this year. “Coming over here, I knew we were going to have a shot to do something special.”
In his third start of the season, he settled for a no-decision at Minute Maid Park despite holding the Astros to four hits and one walk over nine scoreless innings on April 18.
“He’s a No. 1 pitcher. There’s no doubt about that,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said. “He could be anybody’s No. 1 in baseball, certainly a No. 2 on a lot of teams as well. I mean it would be hard to choose him one or two.
“But he’s a team leader too. He’s a lot of fun, [and] he’s energetic during games.”
Since reaching the majors, Hudson is an amazing 106-48 with a 3.33 ERA.
“He relies a lot on his split-finger and good movement on his fastball and location,” Berkman said of Hudson. “He’s just a quality pitcher. He kind of reminds me of Roy [Oswalt], guys that aren’t huge in stature but have life on their fastball and know what they’re doing when they’re out there.”
Despite all his regular-season success, however, Hudson hasn’t had much success in the postseason. He is 1-2 with a 3.44 ERA over four career division series starts.
“I feel like I’m going to win every game that I pitch, whether it’s postseason, regular season, whatever,” he said.