Aug. 29, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO,CA--On Saturday, Daniel Hudson (ODU'08) followed Barry Enright's Friday-night gem with a solid outing of his own as Arizona defeated the Giants andBarry Zito, 11-3. Overall, Hudson is 5-2 (with both Chicago and Arizona) with a 3.03 ERA with 56 strikeouts in 59.1 innings.
Hudson (4-1, 1.87 ERA) continued his brilliant run since being acquired by the D-backs, once again working into the seventh inning. The right-hander allowed two runs on only four hits -- a single, double, triple and home run -- in seven innings, striking out six.
In his last four outings, Hudson has fanned nine at Milwaukee, 10 against CentralDivision leading Cincinnati, nine against Colorado and six last night againstthe Giants.
Each base knock Hudson allowed was hit hard, and despite his final line, neither he nor Gibson put Saturday's outing among his finest of the season. But after the D-backs put up six runs in the first inning before Hudson even took the mound, he didn't have to be at his best.
"I was struggling early on. We had some long innings, it was kind of tough to stay warm, just kind of battled through it for a little while then the tempo of game started picking up a bit out there," Hudson said. "I really got into a rhythm there at the end."
Justin Verlander (ODU'04) currently ranks sixth in the American League with 168strikeouts in 178.1 innings of work. He is 14-8 overall with a 3.58 ERA, andranks sixth in the American League in wins and 18th in earned run average.The all-time strikeout leader in ODU, CAA and Virginia Division I history is sixthin the AL with a 8.48 strikeout per nine inning average.