Odds and ends from New York

With Hurricane Irene making its way toward New York City, the Braves and Mets have postponed the final two games of this weekend’s series at Citi Field.  The teams will play as scheduled Friday night.

There has not been an official announcement regarding when Saturday and Sunday’s games will be made up.  At least one will likely be played at Citi Field on Sept. 8, which stands as the two teams’ only remaining common offday.    More details will follow.

Earlier this week, Tim Hudson playfully suggested they just play all three games tonight.  David Ross responded by saying, he felt it was a good idea and that Brian McCann should catch all three games.

Hudson will face Chris Capuano and the Mets tonight.

Since Hudson lasted just four innings against the Mets in two of his first three  starts of June, he has gone 8-1 with an 1.91 ERA.  During this 12-start span, he has limited opponents to a .201 batting average, a .267 on-base percentage and a .290 slugging percentage.

Tim Lincecum (1.34) and Clayton Kershaw (1.68) are the only Major Leaguers with lower ERAs during this span.   Hudson’s 1.91 ERA trumps the 1.92 mark Justin Verlander has posted during this span.

Lincecum (.180), Vance Worley (.190) and Verlander have posted the three best opponents batting average during this span.   But Hudson ranks a respectable eighth in that category.

Since overcoming the lower back discomfort that plagued him near the end of May and during the early portion of June, Hudson has pitched like he did for most of last season’s first five months.

Brandon Beachy needs to find more consistency with his breaking pitches and fight through some of the road blocks he has encountered during the middle innings.  But now that I’m done nitpicking about a guy who many of you had never heard of at this time last year, it’s pretty safe to say the kid has compiled impressive results during the initiation phase.

As I was flying to New York this morning and reading the paper, I looked at yesterday’s box score and saw Beachy with a 7-2 record and 3.31 ERA.  Even while knowing the numbers, seeing them together on paper while knowing his meteoric rise certainly made them stand out.

Regardless of the value that should be put on wins and losses, these numbers combined with his story are quite impressive.  He’s posted very impressive strikeout totals and showed composure like he did yesterday  after squandering a three-run lead by the end of the second inning.

There’s no reason to put any ridiculous expectations on him at this point in his career.  But it’s seemingly safe to say he’s at le

But as he proved again yesterday when he bounced back from a couple second inning mistakes and tossed six solid innings, Beachy is a special competitor.   He’s been doing this long enough to prove he’s not something like the next Kyle Davies.

George Sherrill definitely hasn’t received a lot of love in this forum this year and this seems to be a good time to apologize.   While scouring some stats this afternoon, I noticed that Sherrill has allowed just 11.4 percent (4 of 35) of his inherited runners to score this year.

Sherrill’s percentage ranks as the fifth-best mark in the game this year and the four relievers in front of him have all encountered fewer inherited runners.    They are Royals right-hander Greg Holland  3.8 percent (1 of 26), Phillies left-hander Antonio Bastardo 6.9 percent (2 of 29), Tigers right-hander Al Alburquerque  7.4  (2 of 27) and Red Sox right-hander Daniel Bard 10.3 percent (3 of 29).

There aren’t too many of Sherrill’s other stats that will jump off the page.  But that one seemed to be worth mentioning.