NL Worst of the Night: D-Backs' Daniel Hudson Stands out Among Plenty of Bad

Tuesday night in MLB gave us many candidates for NL Worst of the Night honors. There were a lot of bad performances. We could make a slideshow to collect them all. But part of the fun—part of the challenge—is trying to decide who was truly the worst. Hopefully, you'll bear with me as I work through that process here.

Chien-Ming Wang gave up five runs and seven hits in 3.1 innings for the Washington Nationals. Maybe the Nats can now end the charade of trying to showcase him for a trade and put Ross Detwiler back in their starting rotation. 

Dan Uggla took the collar, going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts for the Braves. Justin Maxwell of the Astros also went 0-for-4, striking out three times. So did the Padres' Carlos Quentin.

The Marlins' Mark Buehrle was lit up for six runs and seven hits (three of them homers) in five innings. Aaron Harang issued eight walks for the Dodgers. The Giants' Barry Zito gave up eight runs, nine hits and three walks in 3.1 innings. Aroldis Chapman and John Axford each blew saves. 

Tyler Thornburg made his major league debut for the Milwaukee Brewers, called up from Double-A Huntsville to fill in for Shaun Marcum. He gave up four home runs in 5.1 innings and will probably go back to the minors. (To be fair, Thornburg probably would've been sent back even if he'd pitched well.) 

That's a whole lot of bad stuff to choose from. Yet, in my opinion, one guy stands out with the worst performance of the night in the National League.

Facing the Seattle Mariners, Daniel Hudson gave up seven runs and 10 hits in four innings for the Arizona Diamondbacks. In the fifth inning, he allowed five straight batters to reach base with three singles, a walk and a three-run homer. 

And it's not like Hudson was facing the New York Yankees or Texas Rangers. The Mariners have the fifth-worst team batting average in the major leagues. Only seven teams have scored fewer runs all season. And with runners in scoring position, the M's have the second-lowest average in baseball. 

Any big league team can explode on a given night, of course. But some are more likely to do so than others. The Mariners aren't typically one of those teams. 

To be fair to Hudson, he wasn't the only one who was blown up by the Seattle lineup. He didn't even get the loss Tuesday night as the D-Backs scored enough runs to take him off the hook. Arizona's bullpen eventually lost the game, with J.J. Putz and Brad Ziegler giving up three runs in the 10th inning. 

But this was just the latest bad outing for Hudson. Since returning from a shoulder injury, he's been inconsistent, alternating between good games and bad ones. Tuesday night was obviously one of the bad ones. Hudson sounded pretty exasperated when asked if he had any explanation for his recent struggles.

“I can’t, man,” Hudson told the Arizona Republic's Nick Piecoro. “I wish I could. If I could put a finger on it, I’d try to fix it.”

With the D-Backs all but out of the NL West race, Hudson will probably get plenty of opportunity to work out the problems in his game. But with Trevor Bauer and Tyler Skaggs clawing at the door to get a shot in the big leagues, Hudson might have to figure himself out on the side or in the bullpen.

Follow @iancass on Twitter