Mets Put Sting on Padres : Baseball: Gwynn misses game after fracturing his finger in a car door, and Cone makes the Padres pay, firing a seven hit shutout.

SAN DIEGO — It was only a routine trip to the bank. Tony Gwynn was going to make a quick stop Tuesday morning to make the transaction, finish up his errands and head to San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

Instead, perhaps thinking of the day ahead of him, Gwynn slammed the car door of his Porsche on the middle finger of his right hand, fracturing the tip of his finger.

Gwynn, who had played in every inning of every game in right field for the Padres this season, missed his first game of the season. He might be out until the weekend.

The Padres, who lost 8-0 to the New York Mets, can’t fathom the idea of playing too much longer without him.

Mets starter David Cone (4-2) pitched a seven-hit shutout, his third of the season, tying the league high. Cone, who threw 146 pitches, struck out five batters to increase his league-leading total to 69.

The Padres (21-18), with a hole in the top of their order, also had their five-game winning streak snapped, losing for only the third time in the last 11 games.

The crowd of 15,842 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium saw the difference Gwynn can make in the lineup. Second baseman Craig Shipley replaced him in the No. 2 spot of the batting order. While Gwynn is second in the league with a .369 batting average, Shipley entered with a .158 batting average and finished at .130. He grounded into a double play in his first at-bat, walked in the third inning, popped up with the bases loaded in the fourth, flied out in the sixth and lined out in the ninth.

“Watching my turn come up to hit, it just stunk,” Gwynn said, who spent the game in the clubhouse. “It’s a helpless feeling.”

Said Padre Manager Greg Riddoch: “It’s obvious we need Tony back, but we’ll have to do the best we can without him.”

Gwynn, who also had driven in 11 runs in the last nine games, is unsure when he’ll be able to return. It could be tonight. It could be this weekend. It might take as long as a week, he said.

“What are you going to do?” Gwynn said, “I feel stupid enough as it is. I know what people are thinking, ‘Here’s a guy making millions of dollars a year and he slams his finger in a car door. How stupid.’

“I can’t justify it, what can I say? Yeah, I feel stupid. Yeah, it’s frustrating. Yeah, I can’t wait to see it on ESPN tonight.”

Gwynn still is unsure how it happened. He only remembers slamming the car door, and in a painful split-second, realizing that his finger was lodged between the door and molding. He hoped it was nothing more than a bruise.

He grabbed a shirt from the back of his car to stop the bleeding. He went inside the bank, completed his business, finished his errands and went home. He wrapped the finger in ice when he went home, but the finger started to become discolored. He then went to Scripps Clinic for X-rays that revealed the fracture.

“I was just shocked,” Gwynn said. “I really thought it would be OK. But I had trouble gripping the bat.”

“It’s very much like (Padre second baseman) Kurt Stillwell’s finger dislocation,” said Bob Day, Padre trainer. “Once the inflammation goes down, he’ll be OK.”

Actually, Gwynn still was hoping to play Tuesday after the diagnosis of the fracture. He tried to take batting practice early in the afternoon, took one swing and fouled it off, unable to close his hand. He went back to the bench, tried a different batting glove and bat, but it was of no help.

“It made no sense to even try it in the game,” Gwynn said. “To try to hit against a guy like David Cone, I had no chance.”

Neither did the Padres, who were left with a starting outfield that entered the game with a cumulative .195 batting average. The starting outfielders filled the sixth, seventh and eighth spots in the order. It was even more bizarre for Gary Pettis, who made his first start in right field since 1983.

The Mets made sure it wouldn’t be a pitching duel, either, pouncing on starter Jose Melendez (4-2) for seven hits and four earned runs in 5 2/3 innings. They followed by teeing off on reliever Tim Scott for four runs without allowing him to record an out.

Included in the barrage was a two-run homer by outfielder Bobby Bonilla, his first homer since opening day--spanning 39 games, 133 at-bats and 161 plate appearances. Left fielder Darryl Boston also drove in three runs with a homer and two-run triple. The Mets wound up scoring more runs in the first seven innings than the previous five games combined.

The defeat was the second as a starter for Melendez. He is expected to make another start Sunday against Chicago before the Padres decide whether to recall Frank Seminara, who is 5-1 for triple-A Las Vegas.

Simply, the Padres are becoming desperate for a fifth starter. Dave Eiland and Melendez, who have made seven starts this season as the Padres’ fifth pitcher, have yet to win a game. They’re 0-4 with a 7.48 ERA in that spot.

The Padres actually appeared they might have problems fielding a team Tuesday. They were left short-handed in the infield when Tim Teufel experienced dizziness minutes before game time and was scratched from the lineup. Considering Stillwell received a cortisone shot Tuesday for the tendinitis in his right wrist, the Padres had no extra infielders.

Imagine Riddoch’s alarm, then, when shortstop Tony Fernandez was plunked in the left foot by Cone’s pitch at the start of the game. Fernandez, who exchanged words with catcher Todd Hundley, limped around for a while, but was able to continue. Teufel finally was able to enter the game in the eighth inning and give Fernandez a couple of innings off when the Padres cleared their bench.