We were at Chase Field in July when starting pitcher Daniel Hudson hit his first big-league home run, and the Diamondbacks went on to take a series against the hated Los Angeles Dodgers, two games to one. And it was all Hudson, almost all the time, that day; he not only pitched a one-run, five-hit complete game, he drove in all but one of the Diamondbacks' runs, with the homer and a two-run single later in the game. The single was especially sweet, since the Dodgers had hoped to force Hudson out of the game by putting in a hard-throwing reliever with two men on base and two outs. But manager Kirk Gibson was having none of it. Most managers would have put in a pinch-hitter in this situation, but Gibson left his right-handed hurler in to either save the day or blow an opportunity to seal the deal. When Hudson zapped the ground ball into left field, the Dodgers pitching coach was cursing the day he was born. Along with Ian Kennedy, Hudson is the great hope for the Diamondbacks pitching staff, which (until this season) had stunk for quite some time. The win on this day in July gave him a 10-5 record (3.56 ERA). But more than that, his offensive might added to his .359 batting average. Now, that's a great average for a player who hits every day. For a pitcher, it's stupid-good. We mean, not many actual pinch-hitters anywhere in the bigs have an average like that. No wonder Gibson stuck with Hudson in this clutch situation. For the uninformed, though pitchers may throw manly 95-mile-an-hour fastballs, when they come up to bat, they usually whiff at pitches like little girls in T-ball. Not Dan "The Man" Hudson, the best-hitting pitcher in baseball.