In his first pitching performance since last August, Johan Santana struggled with locating his pitches big time.  The New York Mets’ lefty ace was pounded by the Houston Astros in no time at all, allowing four runs on six hits over just 1.2 innings in his team’s 8-4 loss on Tuesday.

The two-time Cy Young award winner walked away feeling good however, and that’s all that truly matters after his September 1 surgery to remove bone spurs from his elbow.  Seriously, this is Johan Santana we’re talking about.  It’s not like he forgot how to be awesome.  Reaching his 47 pitch-count limit, Santana threw 33 pitches for strikes and says he felt good both physically and mentally.

“Mentally you feel good because that’s one of the big steps you have to make to finally get into a real game and see how your arm reacts to that surgery,” Santana said. “Overall, I felt pretty good.”

Speaking of the Mets, shortstop Jose Reyes underwent a few tests recently and the team has confirmed that he has an overactive thyroid. Reyes totally denies the news, though.  Weird.  Even more strange? A raccoon wreaked havoc on Tradition Field, freaking out the fans.  Hope everyone is up to date on their rabies vaccinations!

Meanwhile, the Big Apple’s other big boy, CC Sabathia, also found himself getting rocked on Tuesday during his New York Yankees’ 12-7 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.  The lefty walked one, fanned two and was tagged for five runs in just over two innings, summing up his performance up in one word:

“Terrible. Location was bad. Collapsing on the backside,” he said. “Still struggling with my delivery. I guess it’s going to take a while. Just try to get better.”

Nick Johnson, on the other hand, couldn’t have felt better. The Yankees designated hitter played his position well today, hitting not one, but two bombs to right field, only a few months after signing a $5.75 million, one-year contract.