MLB

Mets’ Young sorry for breaking Hudson’s ankle

One minute Tim Hudson was spinning a masterpiece on the mound against the Mets. The next, Atlanta’s 38-year-old ace was on his back in agony in foul ground beside first base, having suffered a broken right ankle covering the bag in an eighth-inning collision with Eric Young Jr.

“I saw his foot as I’m going for the base, right there in the middle,” Young said after the Met’s 8-2 defeat at Citi Field. “I knew I got all of his foot.”

Young, who was out on the play on which first baseman Freddie Freeman knocked down his grounder before flipping the ball to the pitcher, was disconsolate in the aftermath of the incident. He apologized profusely to Hudson before the veteran right-hander, whose family was in attendance, was carted off the field.

“I apologized to him, told him it was an accident,” Young said. “Obviously I wasn’t trying to hurt him. He said there was nothing I could do about it.”

Hudson, who was working on a shutout before he was forced out of the game, underwent X-rays at the stadium before returning to the Braves’ hotel. He will undergo surgery in Atlanta when the swelling goes down.

The Braves, stunned by the turn of events, absolved Young of malice aforethought.

“Eric Young, he’s just a great dude,” said Dan Uggla, who wrapped his arm around Young while a handful of players, including David Wright, hovered in the vicinity. “He plays the game hard and the right way. I love him.

“You could see how devastated he was. I told him it was an accident, and to try not to rip himself apart, that it could happen to anybody.”

“We’re all upset.”

The victory, which improved Hudson’s record to 8-7, was the 205th of his major league career. The Braves spoke of how they would miss his presence in the clubhouse as much as his right arm.

“I basically saw the whole thing,” catcher Brian McCann said. “It’s bang-bang and you’ve got to make the play. He’s one of the toughest guys I ever met. He’s a warrior.”

The Braves spoke in somber tones in a clubhouse otherwise devoid of sound.

“It’s just a freak play,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “Two guys going for the bag. You cover the bag hundreds of times.

“He had a chance to have a complete game, a shutout. He’s one of our best teammates, one of the leaders of the team and in the community.

“We won and did a lot of good things, but you don’t even hear music in the clubhouse.”

— Additional reporting by Mark Hale