Center Field Gate

While the rest of baseball talks about the brilliance of Ubado Jimenez, the power of Tim Lincecum, the sheer speed of Josh Johnson and the savvy of Chris Carpenter, Braves fans have consistently extolled the virtues of Tim Hudson — who they claim should be in the running for the N.L. Cy Young Award. On Tuesday night the Nats found out why. Using a mix of up-in-the-zone fastballs and well-placed sinkers, the Braves righty subdued the Nationals in pitching his team to a 3-1 victory at Nats Park. Hudson is now 10-1 in his career against Washington. “For whatever reason, I’ve been able to go out and throw the ball pretty well against these guys and make pitches,” Hudson said of his mastery of the Nats. “It’s not to say next time I pitch against these guys I won’t be backing up third all night. But it does feel good to know you have a history with some success against a team, just for your confidence.”

How good is Hudson? From July of ’08 until just two weeks ago, Hudson reeled off a string of 27 consecutive quality starts. Nats fans might remember that, in one of the best pitching match-ups of the year (at Nats Park at the end of June), Hudson and Stephen Strasburg went head-to-head, with Hudson and the Braves ending up on top. In that duel, Strasburg provided 6.1 innings of stellar hurling, throwing 92 pitches, 57 of them for strikes. Hudson was better, and a model of what everyone here thinks Strasburg could become — Hudson threw 113 pitches, 73 of them for strikes. In that game, Hudson’s two seam sinker led to 12 groundouts, which is exactly the same number that he got last night. “His sinker is so good that you have to respect it,” Adam Dunn said after last night’s loss. “When he’s throwing it down and throwing it for strikes, it’s a long day like it was today.”

Miss Iowa Asks: We don’t usually participate in these kinds of things, but what-the-heck. Since Miguel Batista’s ill-fated comment on his surprise outing against the Braves on Monday (“Imagine,” he said, “if you go there to see Miss Universe — and you end up having Miss Iowa”), we’ve come up with our own ideas on an appropriate role for the pride of Bettendorf (A Premier City and home of “The Bulldogs“) — Katherine Conners. Since Batista has been invited to be a judge at the next “Miss Iowa” beauty pagaent, it seems only appropriate that “Katie” come to Washington to throw out the first pitch in a ballgame, with Miguel catching. That might bring in a fan or two. Katie could then sit-in for Rob Dibble in the MASN broadcast booth (“spontaneous demonstrations broke out in Oceana today”) and (since she’s thrown “a pitch or two”), add her two cents on what Jim Riggleman might do to improve the team’s play. MASN could promote it as a “new segment” for their broadcast. They could call it “Miss Iowa Asks.”

Katie would undoubtedly have the same questions we do: “Now, Mr. Riggleman (ooooh, you are a handsome man), but I mean why do you insist on starting Willie Harris? I mean, gee willikers, Mr. Harris is a nice man and all (okay, a little short but anyway, nevermind, I mean, well, nevermind), but as I understand it he’s hitting below some kind of line and that’s not good. Anyway, I mean criminy you can just bet that the coach of the Bettencourt Bulldogs wouldn’t start Willy. No siree. He’d start that nice handsome boy Michael Morse, I’d just bet that that’s what he’d do. Totally. I mean, Michael is totally rad. You know, I’ve noticed, that Michael Morse can really stroke the ball (is that the phrase, I can’t remember, oh well, but he’s a way better hitter), and really Mr. Riggleman we need to do something. I mean, I like Mr. Harris and all — oh, and that reminds me: is he a relative of yours? Because this is getting grodie. He’s hitting .184. .184! I mean, duh. Because I don’t understand (and I know, I don’t really know as much as you do) why in blue blazes (oops, sorry, I didn’t mean to say that) that you’d start him. Oh well, anyway. Whatever. I mean, I don’t want to be a stressorama or anything, but you know. Why? Why start Willie Harris? You think he’s going to get better. I mean, like, no way. And that’s all I have to say — I mean, like whatever.”