Casey Kelly (0-1, 9.00) started off slowly last Friday against Arizona in his first start since September 2012 after undergoing reconstructive elbow surgery in April 2013.
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It will finish with a mention of rival pitcher Brett Anderson.
Hudson allowed three runs and three hits in 2⅓ innings in the final start of his 17-year major league career, taking the loss in a 3-2 defeat to the division champion Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday.
Chase Utley hit a sacrifice fly after Andre Ethier’s leadoff triple in the second, Adrian Gonzalez added an RBI single and Ethier drove in a run on a groundout for the Dodgers. I’m walking around, they have to tape me together just to be able to get me out there.
The Dodgers (89-70) come off an unimpressive 2-5 trip, with Tuesday’s 8-0 NL West-clinching victory over San Francisco the brightest among the few highlights. Kershaw and Zack Greinke form quite the 1-2 punch for the Dodgers, who are still fighting for home-field advantage the rest of the way ahead of their best-of-five division series against the New York Mets. The Mets hold the tiebreaker.
“We’re still trying to fight the Mets for home-field advantage”. He left Wednesday’s game in the first inning with a neck strain, an injury he suffered when he ran headfirst into the padded fence in foul territory down the left-field line.
Chris Hatcher and closer Kenley Jansen, who got his 35th save, then sealed the result for Anderson (10-9), who allowed two runs and four hits in 7-2/3 innings.
“Hopefully, it carries over into the postseason”, Anderson said. “I thought I was efficient”. “Obviously, I love being a Giant”.
The Dodgers scored all three of their runs in the second and third innings against the soon-to-be retirees.
Between farewell performances by Tim Hudson and Jeremy Affeldt and the between-innings filming of scenes for a revived “Full House” series, it had the feel of an Old-Timers Day at AT&T Park on Thursday.
The Dodgers ended Hudson’s day – and his career – in the inning when Anderson and Kendrick sandwiched a flyout between singles.
“Today was very special for me – the response of the fans and the response from my teammates. He just had a wonderful career”.
“I just closed my eyes and swung the bat”, he admitted.
Bochy replaced Hudson with reliever Jeremy Affeldt who announced earlier in the day that he was also retiring after the season.
He finishes with 222 wins and a 3.49 ERA in more than 3,100 career innings, making four All-Star teams and finishing among the top-five in Cy Young balloting three times. He struck out one.
Carlos Beltran and rookies Greg Bird and Rob Refsnyder all homered for New York in the franchise’s 10,000th regular-season win.
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“I want a chance to start”, said Vogelsong, the 2011 Willie Mac Award victor as the club’s most inspirational player.
