Cone Has Come Back Home!

April 21, 2003-- This all had just started out as a slim possibility...an experiment to answer the "what-ifs," perhaps even one last "oh-what-the-hell," but now as David Cone not only outpitched his young competitors in Spring Training, he pitched his heart out in a cold and icy Shea debut against the Montreal Expos on April 4th. Cone earned his first win of the season that night as he gave up only 2 hits and 3 walks while striking out 5 in his first 5 innings of the season. Cone and the Mets' bullpen shut out the Expos as the Mets took the 4-0 victory. Cone also showed off his offensive talent when he singled in the 3rd at his first at-bat. This left him virtually perfect, with an ERA of 0.00 and a BA of 1.000. Unfortunately, Cone's second outing against the Expos in Puerto Rico was not as brilliant. This time it was the Expos who shutout the Mets 10-0. Cone only went for 4 innings while giving up 7 runs on 8 hits and 3 walks with 4 strikeouts. This bloated his ERA up to 7.00 and his BA shrunk to .500. Cone's first 2 innings looked fabulous, it was the 3rd inning that got him into trouble when he walked Macias and gave up a homerun to Schneider. He had a hard time settling down as he continued to give up hits and finally he was blasted by a grand-slam from Wilkerson. Cone's last outing on April 16th improved greatly from his night in Puerto Rico when the Mets took on the Pirates in Pittsburgh. He gave up only 3 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks while striking out 3 in 5 innings of work. Cone and the Mets took the loss as the Pirates bested them 6-3. Right now Cone's record stands at 1-2 with an ERA of 6.43 and a BA of .250. His next scheduled start is set for April 22nd against the Houston Astros at Shea Stadium.