Performance of the Week award: Week Twelve

As an A’s fan, I’m tempted to give this week’s award to the Giants’ Madison Bumgarner. 

His ‘performance’ on Tuesday night was a horror show for San Fran, naturally making it a highlight for us in the green and gold.  Bumgarner was chased by the Twins having recorded just one out on Tuesday while conceding eight runs. 

Baseball has a habit of biting you on the behind even before tempting fate by laughing at a rival’s misfortune, so I’ll settle for a slight chuckle and to send the award to someone who truly deserves it.

There are several candidates.

The Reds’ Chris Heisey had the hitting performance of the week as he went deep three times against the Yankees on Wednesday.

As for pitchers, James Shields struck out ten Marlins and gave up just one unearned run on Sunday, while Zack Greinke also added more K’s to his name (in more ways than one) with ten against the Rays on Tuesday.  Clayton Kershaw had set the K trend the day before Greinke’s start by striking out eleven Detroit Tigers as he pitched a complete game shutout.

The winner 

Kershaw’s performance would normally have been enough to take the honours, but he just got pipped by another starting pitcher’s outing on the same night.

The Braves’ Tim Hudson struck out eight Toronto Blue Jays over eight scoreless innings.  That was impressive enough; however what pushed him past the other contenders was that he backed his own pitching effort with a two-run homer: the only runs scored in the game. 

Pitching wins often don’t count for a lot, but in Hudson’s case he undoubtedly earned his W on this occasion and the Performance of the week award.