NEW YORK — The New York Mets and Tampa Bay Rays will experience what it’s like to look across the field and feel as if they’re staring into a mirror for the last time this season on Sunday afternoon when the teams play the rubber game of a three-game series at Citi Field.
The Mets’ Chris Flexen (0-1 Phillip Gaines Color Rush Jersey , 10.80 ERA) is scheduled to face the Rays’ Nathan Eovaldi (2-3, 3.92) in a battle of right-handers.
The Rays posted a 3-0 win Saturday afternoon when ace left-hander Blake Snell tossed 7 1/3 strong innings and Wilson Ramos collected two RBIs.
The Mets and Rays have combined for just nine runs in the first two games, four of which were registered when New York’s Jose Bautista hit a walk-off grand slam to lift the Mets to a 5-1 win on Friday night. The teams had just eight hits in 77 plate appearances with runners on base on Friday and Saturday.
Such struggles have become routine for the Rays and Mets, who ranked 26th and 27th in the majors in runs scored after Saturday’s game — during which Tampa Bay moved past New York.
The offensive woes have threatened to negate the strong work of both pitching staffs. The Rays (44-44) have a 2.77 ERA since May 19, when they began infusing their rotation with the “opener” in select games.
“I think that with the way we’ve pitched, we find ourselves being in a lot of ballgames,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said before Saturday’s game. “But when the bats are quiet, it just becomes really, really tough to find ways to win ballgames.”
Starting pitchers for the Mets (35-50), meanwhile, have a 2.25 ERA in the last six games and a 3.94 ERA this year. New York’s three most utilized starters — Jacob deGrom, Zack Wheeler and Steven Matz — are 11-16 despite a 3.06 ERA in 51 games.
“If we win just five games of deGrom’s and Matz’s and Wheeler’s — and that’s being conservative — we’re right where we want to be,” Mets manager Mickey Callaway said after Saturday’s game. “And it just hasn’t happened.”
Flexen will make his first start of the season and his first appearance since June 24 Marshall Newhouse Color Rush Jersey , when he took the loss after giving up one run in one inning as the Mets fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-7 in 11 innings. He hasn’t started in the majors since last Oct 1, when Flexen allowed six runs (five earned) in 1 1/3 innings as New York fell to the Philadelphia Phillies 11-0 in the season finale.
Eovaldi didn’t factor into the decision in his most recent start Monday, when he gave up two runs in six innings as the Rays fell to the Miami Marlins 3-2 in 10 innings. He has allowed two runs or fewer three times in seven starts this season but has surrendered at least four runs three other times.
Flexen has never faced the Rays. Eovaldi is 1-4 with a 5.01 ERA in nine career starts against the Mets.
WASHINGTON — Red-hot Mark Reynolds and the Washington Nationals will go for the sweep in the finale of their four-game series against the Miami Marlins on Sunday.
Reynolds followed up his dramatic walk-off homer Friday night with two homers and a career-high 10 RBIs Saturday night as the Nationals demolished the Marlins 18-4.
In five at-bats, Reynolds homered, doubled, singled, homered and singled to tie his career high for hits along with the Nationals’ RBI mark.
“Yeah that’s like a good two weeks,” Reynolds said. “I mean like my last hit a guy dove and it went off his glove and went into left field. You got a little luck involved. Sometimes you just take a good swing the night before and feel confident going into the next day and that’s what happened.”
Since their team meeting following a July 4 loss to the Red Sox the Nationals (45-43) have won three straight, scoring 35 runs.
Manager Dave Martinez should rest easy, but now has a pleasant problem: where to put the righty Reynolds on Sunday when the Marlins pitch a right-hander and his other two first base options are lefty hitters.
“I’ve seen him like this, when he gets hot like this he can stay hot for a while, so we’ll have to figure something out,” Martinez said.
The Marlins got homers from Starlin Castro http://www.officialsenators.com/authentic-adidas-mike-hoffman-jersey , J.T. Realmuto and Yadiel Rivera against Max Scherzer in a game that was tied 3-3 going to the bottom of the fifth before Washington pulled away for its 14th straight win over Miami.
“We haven’t had any success with them in a while now,” manager Don Mattingly said. “They’re a good lineup up and down, but we’ve pitched better than this.”
Scherzer (11-5) picked up his first win since June 5. Washington had been shut out in three of his past five starts.
“I remember I said after Tampa the run support is going to be there,” he said. “These guys are too good.”
Miami rookie Trevor Richards (2-5, 5.26 ERA) opposes right-hander Tanner Roark (3-10, 4.60) in the finale.
Roark is looking for his first win since June 6. Last time out he allowed nine runs on 10 hits — including two home runs — over seven innings of a loss to the Red Sox as he stayed in after a six-run fifth to save the arms in a tired bullpen.
“That’s the best I’ve felt in a long time,” Roark told MLB.com. “So other than two pitches, I feel like they base-hit me to death. What are you going to do?”
Roark is 5-8 with a 3.99 ERA in 22 games against the Marlins. Martin Prado is 10-for-23 against Roark and J.T. Realmuto is 10-for-26. Justin Bour is 5-for-29 but three of the hits were home runs.
Richards, who will make his first start against Washington, allowed four runs on nine hits with no walks across five innings in a no-decision Tuesday against the Rays. He struck out five. He is 2-3 with a 5.52 ERA since being recalled from Triple-A New Orleans on June 7.
“We’ve had a rough series so far,” Mattingly said. “Hopefully Trevor gets us on track tomorrow and we can put a win together and move on.”