Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez left his start for Double A Binghamton tonight after only an inning of work. He allowed two runs on two hits and two walks.

More news to come on whether it is injury related or not.

Thx to Loran in the bleachers for the tip.

Update 8:58: SNY’s Gary Cohen just reported that Duque left his start tonight with “discomfort” in his foot. He will see a doctor tomorrow.

Rumors of Orlando ‘El Duque’ Hernandez’s death have been greatly exaggerated, as news surfaces today he participated in what some might kind of call baseball activities. According to Adam Rubin , Duq tossed four innings in a rookie level game in the Gulf Coast league, allowing four hits and one earned run.

Figure maybe another Gulf Coast appearance, a brief stop with the Cyclones, a few games with Binghamton, another injury, a month in a boot, back to the Gulf Coast, skip a few starts with arthritis, a few weeks with the Zephyrs, experiment with a delivery requiring little to no leg movement, and by this time in 2010 he’ll be ready to start one or two games for the Mets.

According to Adam Rubin, Moises Alou is looking likely for the upcoming Braves series. He went 2 for 7 and played 7 innings in left in his most recent extended spring training game.

I’m officially restarting the Moises Alou injury pool, and saying…the Pirates series.

Ramon Castro caught four innings and went 2 for 3.

For those who have forgotten, Ramon Castro is our backup catcher, and bears a vague resemeblence to Shrek, except he isn’t green. Well, he isn’t usually green.

Orlando Hernendez, still wearing a boot. Over/under on his return is set at: never.

ESPN’s Jayson Stark’s list of “Impact Injuries” places the combination of Pedro Martinez and El Duque fifth.

Stark quotes a scout,

“You add the loss of those two guys to the inconsistency of [Mike] Pelfrey, and I’ll tell you what it does,” said one scout. “It really puts a lot of pressure on Santana. This is a team lacking in starting-pitching depth. So getting as much as they can out of those two guys is critical to the Mets. And I don’t know how much they’ll get.”

I think it’s all about Ollie, if he pitches well the Mets starting pitching will be fine. It’s not like there’s a ton of teams that go four or five deep with their starting staffs.

Orlando Hernandez, known in some circles as El Duque, is sporting some hot boots of the medical variety after spraining a tendon. This may or may not have to with his new and already discarded delivery, his crazy high kick delivery, his bunion, his previous foot related injuries, or a taxi cab accident.

So whatever number we were given on Duq’s return, lets add a good month. Minimum. Realistically, two.