Tim Hudson 1-Hits Brewers; Max Scherzer Shuts Out Yankees over Eight

Players of the Day for Wednesday, May 4, 2011

American League

Max Scherzer

Max Scherzer shut down the Yankee bats as he improved to 5-0 on the season, tossing eight innings of shutout ball in Detroit's 4-0 home win.

Fanning nine, Scherzer struck out every batter in New York's starting lineup except Curtis Granderson, including getting Mark Teixeira twice. Scherzer limited the Yankees to just four hits and walked two batters, and was never in trouble as the Tigers scored once in the second inning and packed on three more runs in the third.

Mixing his pitches well enough to keep opposing batters off-balance, Scherzer threw 69 of 109 pitches for strikes.

Detroit took firm command of third place in the AL Central, but still trail Cleveland - whose 12-game home winning streak was snapped by Oakland, 3-1 - by a full seven games. The Yankees still control the AL East by two games, as second place Tampa Bay lost to Toronto, 3-2.

Scherzer's 46 Ks have him tied with Dan Haren for third in the American League.

National League

Tim Hudson

With the focus in the NL East on the battle for first place between the Phillies and Marlins, the Atlanta Braves have been lurking in third place, 4 1/2 back after Tim Hudson's near-perfect performance on Wednesday.

Hudson set down the first nine Milwaukee batters in order before giving up the Brewers' only hit of the game, a double by Ricky Weeks to lead off the 4th inning. After that, Hudson set down 16 straight before a one-out walk in the 9th inning to Weeks, his only free pass of the game. Going the distance, Hudson fanned 6 batters.

While Hudson was twirling his one-hitter, Atlanta batters went to town, getting 12 hits and 8 runs off four Milwaukee pitchers for the 8-0 win.

The shutout was the first this season for Hudson, who has thrown 12. It was Hudson's 24th complete game in a career which stretches back to 1999. Hudson is 4-2.