Astros 6, Mets 2

The David Cone comeback doesn't have much of a leg to stand on right now, so to speak. Tonight he just pitched two ugly innings on 51 pitches, giving up two runs on three hits and three walks, before being removed due to a "sore hip". Insert your own jokes about his age here. Jae Seo came in and didn't fare much better, giving up four runs on eight hits in five innings. It's too soon to say what this all means for Cone's status in the starting rotation, but it looks like he'll probably miss at least one start.

Mike Piazza tried to carry the offense on his back, hitting a double and a home run and scoring both Met runs, but he wasn't getting much help tonight. Roberto Alomar hit a double of his own, as did Jeromy Burnitz, who drove in Piazza, but those hits, along with a Ty Wigginton singel, accounted for all the hitting from the Mets.

But the other sad story of the night was the story of a meeting between Burnitz's hand and Billy Wagner's fastball. Burnitz will be out between four and six weeks, and the Mets' outfield situation has gone from, well, "bad to worse" is probably too nice, so I'll say it's gone from worse to whatever comes after worse. Burnitz was leading Met starters with his .878 OPS, and has three home runs and seven doubles on the season. And Cliff Floyd, the other Met outfielder who's done some hitting has missed a few games nursing his strained Achilles tendon. Roger Cedeno still can't hit or play centerfield, and neither Timo Perez nor Tsuyoshi Shinjo is really tearing it up at the plate, but they seem to be the three guys likely to get the bulk of playing time in the outfield. Raul Gonzalez is hitting .375/.462/.536 at Norfolk, and I would love to see him get called up and get some playing time, but I'm dreading that this will be Joe McEwing's ticket back to the majors. Is there any way we can swindle the Royals out of Carlos Beltran now?  ¶ joe | 1:27 AM |