NL Beast

The Game: New York Mets (16-14) at Los Angeles Dodgers (18-14)

The Matchup: Nelson Figueroa (2-1, 4.08 ) vs. Hiroki Kuroda (1-2, 3.82)

The Story: The Mets are hoping their bats make it from Arizona to Los Angeles tonight as they look to do a little better offensively than last night, when Chad Billingsley shut New York’s hitters down. Jose Reyes, Ryan Church, and David Wright went a collective 0-10 on the night against Billingsley, Jonathan Broxton, and Takashi Saito.

Tonight, the Mets face rookie Hiroki Kuroda, the Dodgers’ big offseason acquisition out of Japan. Kuroda has been a good story for the Dodgers, just as Nelson Figueroa has for the Mets. Figgie was skipped over last go-around in the rotation in favor of Johan Santana, but he did take over for Oliver Perez after his disaster against Pittsburgh last week. The super-journeyman out of Brooklyn has been a great story so far, and looks to continue the magic tonight.

Carlos Delgado has certainly come around for the Mets, and is 8 for his last 25 with 3 HR and 6 RBI. It would be nice if the rest of the team decides to join him tonight at Chavez Ravine.

Lineups:

Mets: Reyes (SS), Church (RF), Wright (3B), Beltran (CF), Alou (LF), Delgado (1B), Schneider (C), Castillo (2B), Figueroa (P)

Dodgers: Pierre (LF), Jones (CF), Kemp (RF), Kent (2B), Martin (C), Loney (1B), DeWitt (3B), Hu (SS), Kuroda (P)

-Jonathan Kraft