(Best E Casino) - With their playoff hopes dwindling for the second straight year, the
New York Mets will go with ace Johan Santana on short rest this afternoon in the second installment of a three-game series versus the
Florida Marlins at Shea Stadium.
The Mets have lost two of three and five of their last seven games, including Friday's 6-1 setback in the series opener with Florida, to fall two games behind Philadelphia in the NL East standings and one game back of Milwaukee in the wild card chase. Both the Phillies and the Brewers won Friday night. The Phils can win the division with a win or a New York loss.
New York, which blew a seven-game lead in the NL East with 17 games left on the regular-season schedule in 2007, is in the same situation as last season when the Marlins took two of three games in the final series of the campaign to dash its postseason aspirations.
In Friday's tough loss, starter Mike Pelfrey allowed three runs on eight hits in six innings to suffer the loss. David Wright had two of New York's seven hits and Brian Schneider recorded the club's only RBI. The Mets are playing their final regular-season series at Shea Stadium and will open brand new Citi Field in 2009. They are trying desperately to get some more home games in with a playoff berth.
Santana will take the ball on three days' rest and has won two straight starts and eight of his previous 16 trips to the mound (8-0). Santana, whose last defeat was June 28 versus the Yankees, topped the Chicago Cubs the last time out on Tuesday, tossing eight solid innings of two-run ball. He improved to 15-7 with a 2.64 ERA this season.
The southpaw and NL Cy Young Award candidate is 2-0 in two starts against Florida this season and 4-0 with a 2.49 ERA in four lifetime matchups with the Marlins.
Marlins rookie starter Chris Volstad threw six decent innings last night to lead the way. He allowed an unearned run on five hits and three walks for the win while Josh Willingham homered and drove in two runs for the Marlins, who have won two straight and six of 10 games. Hanley Ramirez was 4-for-5 with three runs scored and two steals in a winning cause.
Ricky Nolasco gets the nod for the Marlins on Saturday and he is 15-7 with a 3.55 earned run average. He is 4-0 in his previous eight outings and did not record a decision the previous time out on September 22 at Cincinnati, yielding three runs and six hits in six innings.
Nolasco, who is 5-1 in his last 11 outings, is 2-4 with a 6.92 ERA in 10 career games, eight of which have been starts, against the Mets.
New York has won four of the last seven meetings with Florida and leads the season series by a 9-7 count, including a 4-3 mark at Shea.
