ATLANTA — Mark Mulder flew here Tuesday night, found a steakhouse for dinner and sat at the bar to watch his old friend Tim Hudson pitch on television. Mulder, 35, is two years younger than Hudson. Each won 81 games for the Oakland Athletics from 2000 through 2004. But Mulder is a broadcaster now for ESPN, nearly seven years removed from his last victory.

“If I would have had to leave this game because I wasn’t good enough anymore, it would have been different,” Mulder said. “But my arm just didn’t work right anymore. The last two years in St. Louis, I was miserable. I started to hate going to the field every day because I knew I was going to work on things in the training room that were not going to fix me. It was almost like just delaying the inevitable.”

Mulder finished his career in 2008 with a 103-60 record, impressive but incomplete because of shoulder trouble. He stands as one of many pitchers, like the Mets’ Johan Santana, who seemed headed for at least 200 wins before ruinous injuries.

Hudson is a survivor. He had reconstructive elbow surgery in 2008 and missed most of the next season. But otherwise, he has been durable, and he reached 200 career victories as Mulder watched on Tuesday. Only two other active pitchers — Andy Pettitte (248 wins) and Roy Halladay (201) — are in the club, with C. C. Sabathia at 195.