The New York Mets are coming off a 4-2 road trip, which easily could have been a 6-0 road trip if the Mets hadn't played horrid defense which lead to two-straight one run losses.
The Mets (59-52) are now coming home, have been playing well this summer at Citi Field (38-18). The Mets will have to face the Colorado Rockies (47-62) for four games. Despite having a record under .500, the Rockies have the hottest hitter in the league in Carlos Gonzalez and former Mets shortstop Jose Reyes in their lineup, who will be downing a new uniform again because of shocking deadline trade that sent superstar shortstop Troy Tulowitzki to the Toronto Blue Jays.
After that it will get a little tougher, as the Mets will have to face the Pittsburgh Pirates (65-44) for three, who are battling for a Wild Card spot (3.5 games in front) and trail the St. Louis Cardinals (71-40) in the National League Central division by five games.
The Mets can use this home stand to propel them further ahead of the Washington Nationals, who are trailing the Mets by 1.5 games in the National League East standings.
The Nationals on the other hand will be on the road (26-30) facing the Los Angeles Dodgers (62-49) at home (37-18), and will have to face aces Zack Greinke and Clayton Kershaw, who have remained dominant within the league. Not making their road trip any easier, Washington will head to California and will have to face the World Champion San Francisco Giants (30-23 at home) for four games, and will have to face ace Madison Bumgarner in the finale on Sunday, who is never an easy task.
The Nationals, who are 3-7 in their last 10, were predicted by many to win the National League East and have been playing uninspiring baseball for a long period of time. While New York has been on a upswing since the additions at the trade deadline, going 7-3 in their last 10.
The Mets will start the stretch of 10 games at home with Jon Niese, who has won three of his last four starts. Followed by their big three Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom and rookie sensation Noah Syndergaard, who all pitch better at home.
The Mets have to keep their offense moving led by Lucas Duda and newly acquired Yoenis Cespedes, who has made the Mets a more potent offensive while giving Duda some protection in their lineup. Duda has been tearing it up at Citi Field and has owned the Rockies in his career, hitting .371 with a 10-game hitting streak against them. Duda is batting .297 at home with 18 of his 21 home runs coming at Citi. Curtis Granderson, who also has been mashing the ball (.314 in August), is 8-for-22 (.367) with seven RBI versus Colorado in the last six meetings.
The Mets have favorable pitching matchups against the Rockies than the Nationals do against Dodgers in their first series of games this week. The chances for the Mets separate themselves in the division are very good at this point, but the Rockies could still play spoiler to the Mets like they did to the Nationals, who took their last series. They just have to contain Gonzalez and shut him down, who has been a major force at the plate.
This week will be big for both the Nationals and Mets. However, it looks like the Mets could have the upper hand just based on how they have performed overall at Citi Field, while the Nationals sit on the West Coast trying to regroup while they face a harder task in front of them.