Mets 71-78 vs Nationals 70-77 Preview

Chris Schwinden 0-1, 9.00 ERA

Tommy Milone 0-0, 6.30 ERA

Mets Thursday lineup vs. Washington: Tejada-SS, Turner-2B, Wright-3B, Bay-LF, Pagan-CF, Evans-RF, Pascucci-1B, Paulino-C, Schwinden-RHPless than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet ReplyNew York Mets
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The Mets will try to avoid a sixth straight loss and their seventh in the last nine games against the Washington Nationals. The Mets haven't been swept in a four game home series to the Nats since September 18-21, 2003, when they were the Montreal Expos visiting Shea Stadium. The MEts have scored a total of just 4 runs in losing the 1st 3 games of this series.

"We're taking pitches we can hit. We are getting ourselves in counts and getting pitches we're having trouble hitting," Terry Collins said.

Mets and Nationals will pitch both rookies in this finale at Citi Field. Chris Schwinden is making his second major league start. Schwinden gave up 5 runs and 8 hits through five innings in his major league debut against the Atlanta Braves, in which he took a 6-5 loss last Thursday. “This opportunity is unbelievable,” Schwinden told Mets' official website. “Not a lot of guys get this opportunity, they go through their whole career trying to get here without smelling this. It’s wonderful. I’m going to try to take in everything I can from here and try to learn as much as I can from these guys and from failure, because that’s the best way to learn.”

Mike Pelfrey was named the Mets' 2011 nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, which is presented to the player who best represents the game through positive contributions off the field. In last night's game, Pelfrey had one of his better performances on the mound, he went 7 innings without allowing an earned run, 2 runs were unearned because of a Wright error. Pelfrey got the loss and dropped to 7-12 on the season. Jose Reyes went 1-for-5 and has at least a hit in 16 of the 17 games since he returned from the disabled list on August 29th. Meanwhile, Wright committed another error Wednesday night, giving him his 7th error in the last nine games. Justin Turner contines to be on a hot streak, he is hitting 11-for-24 (.458) over his last 10 games. He doubled as a pinch-hitter Wednesday night, but popped out to the mound trying to bunt in the 9th inning.

Chris Schwinden:

• Last Game vs Braves - 5.0IP 8H 5ER 1BB 4K 1HR

Tommy Milone:

• Last Game vs Mets - 4.1IP 6H 4ER 0BB 2K 1HR

Quoted By David Wright: "It's another year that we're not going to the playoffs. You would have thought that with the resources that we have, the players that we've had, that we would have had an opportunity to go to the playoffs more than once. That hasn't happened, and obviously that's disappointing." - On The Mets being eliminated from playoff contention Wednesday.