Pitching Straight A's.

Oakland's Tim Hudson Passes the Test As Major League Starter

In his first full major league season, Athletics right-hander won 20 games and led club to first division title since 1992

WHEN TIM HUDSON HIT ROCK BOTTOM, HE crashed hard. He knows the night, the city, the rain-marred mound of his comedown. He remembers standing in the spacious but unfriendly confines of the visitors' clubhouse in Cleveland and staring into space while answering question after miserable question.

The date was April 20. The Indians had demolished Hudson and the A's, 9-5. Hudson wasn't beaten by the Indies. He was bludgeoned. He lasted two and one-third innings, allowing five hits and four earned runs. He was drilled in the chest by Roberto Alomar's line drive, which knocked him out of the game. It was just as well.

Worse were Hudson's responses. He was shellshocked. The kid pitcher who impressed his teammates for his bulldog attitude as much as his pitching ability had no idea what was happening.

"Maybe it was just Cleveland. I don't know. But I think I didn't have a lot of confidence in my pitches, my fastball especially," Hudson said recently. "But after those games, I didn't have a lot of confidence in anything I was doing."

There was, back then, a scent of blood in the air. The Indians smelled it. They had crushed Hudson for the second time in 10 days. The Boston Red Sox were circling, too. Five days earlier, they had clubbed Hudson for seven earned runs and six hits in one and two-thirds of an inning in the A's 14-2 loss.