Patrick Reusse: Playoff-hungry Hudson carries out his role

Orlando Hudson was with Arizona and in the All-Star Game for the first time in 2007. The Diamondbacks were on the way to the playoffs, when Hudson was knocked from the lineup because of a broken thumb.

The second baseman missed the D-Backs' playoff excursion: a three-game sweep of the Cubs and being swept in four games by Colorado.

"I was like, 'Dang, my first time in the playoffs, and my thumb's broken,' " Hudson said last week.

A year later, Arizona was only a game over .500 and yet had a half-game lead in the National League West. On Aug. 9, Hudson suffered a broken wrist and couldn't help as the Diamondbacks finished second by two games.

Hudson had to wait until late February to sign with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 2009 season. He again was named to the National League All-Star team and was headed for the postseason.

On Aug. 31, the Dodgers made a trade with Washington for Ronnie Belliard, a veteran second baseman. The indication was Belliard would serve as a backup infielder, and then on Sept. 19, manager Joe Torre put Belliard in the lineup and sat Hudson for a few days.

Torre said "some fatigue" had hit Hudson. The manager wanted to play Belliard and look at his options.

The more emotional followers of the Dodgers suggested Hudson was benched at the behest of owner Frank McCourt, in order to save $40,000 per game on his bottom line.

Hudson sat for a few days, played most of the games down the stretch, and then the playoffs arrived. Belliard started every game -- three against the Cardinals and five against the Phillies.

Hudson seethed quietly before saying of Torre last November: "My teammates talked to me about it more than Joe did. I never had any answers because Joe and I never talked."

Asked last week about his playoff experience, Hudson said: "Last year don't count."

And that was a reason Hudson was so fired up as he looked ahead to a division series knowing he would be playing second base and batting second for the Twins.

On Wednesday night, Hudson made his first postseason start. He worked his way around the bases in the third to give the Twins a 3-0 lead. He was on first with a single, moved to third as first baseman Mark Teixeira scrambled to the bag to retire Joe Mauer, and then scored on a wild pitch.

At that moment, it looked as if Hudson's hustle provided a cushion the Twins could use to win their first postseason game at home since Oct. 8, 2002, when Joe Mays throttled Anaheim 2-1 in the opener of the ALCS.

That optimism was a mirage -- perhaps intensified by the bright lights of the Twins' new outdoor surroundings.

Francisco Liriano held the Yankees scoreless through five innings, and then the lead was gone in a snap: Three hits, a walk and a wild pitch made it 3-2, before Curtis Granderson's two-run triple kissed off the scoreboard in right-center.

That's a grievous sin, for Liriano to allow a game-turning blast from Granderson, a .234 hitter against lefties. And when it was tied 4-4 in the seventh, Jesse Crain permitted Teixeira to send a high fly into the night sky that came down inside the right field foul pole for a two-run homer.

The Twins have lost those nine in a row at home. They have lost 10 in a row overall dating to a victory at Yankee Stadium on Oct. 5, 2004. And the postseason record is 2-17 since Mays dazzled the Angels eight years ago.

Eight years is more than a trend. And whatever it is, there must be change starting late Thursday afternoon, or Hudson's going to have a playoff experience only slightly more fulfilling than last October in Los Angeles.