Good morning Mets fans! The New York Mets (27-29) lost their four-game series against the Los Angeles Dodgers (38-19) after falling 2-0 to the Dodgers on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium. The Mets will continue their West Coast road trip as they open up a three-game set with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday at 9:40 p.m. EDT.

Latest Mets News

Zack Wheeler (4-3, 4.63 ERA) will get the nod for the first game of the series. Jon Duplantier (1-0, 2.25 ERA) will serve as opposition to Wheeler. Game coverage will be on SNY, WCBS 880 and ESPN 1050.

The Athletic’s Twitter account, @TheAthleticNYC, tweeted out a video from 2016 that showed Pete Alonso‘s reaction to being drafted by the Mets.

Jason Vargas lowered his ERA to 4.46 after Thursday’s game, which is better than Syndergaard’s 4.90 ERA and Wheeler’s 4.63 ERA to date.

Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News suggested that the Mets should consider ditching Jeurys Familia as the team’s setup man.

Buster Olney of ESPN wrote that the Mets must be ready to become sellers before the 2019 trade deadline.

Latest MLB News

Jeff Passan of ESPN wrote a column about the need for full protective netting at ballparks in light of the little girl who was struck by a foul ball on Wednesday at Minute Maid Park.

Former Pittsburgh Pirate Jared Hughes agreed with Cincinnati Reds manager David Bell‘s statement that Pirates are throwing at Reds intentionally, per Jay Morrison of The Athletic.

Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times highlighted Hyun-Jin Ryu‘s unorthodox routine between starts which excludes having bullpen sessions. After his start against the Mets on Thursday, he lowered his MLB-best 1.65 ERA to an even lower 1.48 ERA.

The Chicago Cubs agreed to a minor league deal with Carlos Gonzalez, as reported by Jesse Rogers of ESPN.

Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel of FanGraphs released pre-draft rankings of teams’ farm systems.

Latest NL East News

The Philadelphia Phillies (33-23) continue their reign atop the NL East standings. They are followed by the Atlanta Braves (30-26; 3.0 games behind), Mets (27-29; 6.0 games behind), Washington Nationals (24-32; 9.0 games behind) and Miami Marlins (19-35; 13.0 games behind).

In addition to the Mets’ loss, the Phillies lost 5-3 to the St. Louis Cardinals and the Marlins lost 3-1 to the San Francisco Giants. The Braves and Nationals had a day off following the conclusion of their two-game series on Wednesday.

David O’Brien of The Athletic wrote a piece on the Braves’ selection of Chipper Jones first overall in the 1990 MLB Draft.

Latest on MMO/MMN

Mathew Brownstein interviewed both David Cone and Jack Curry.

Matt Musico took a deeper look at some of the reasons why Jacob deGrom has not consistently produced his typical top quality pitching this season.

Brian Greenzang analyzed Noah Syndergaard‘s start from Wednesday.

Michael Mayer wrote about Edwin Diaz‘s meltdown in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s game.

Mayer also wrote about the offensive performance during Wednesday’s game from the youthful top of the lineup.

Logan Barer wrote about Alonso’s record-breaking season so far and the record-breaking pace he is on for home runs by a Mets rookie.

Roberto Correa wrote about FanGraphs’ latest mock draft which had the Mets selecting Bryson Stott, a shortstop out of the University of Nevada Las Vegas, with the 12th overall pick.

This Day in Mets History

1964: The Mets were swept by the Giants in a doubleheader which went a total of 32 innings and lasted nine hours and 52 minutes combined. While the first game of the doubleheader was only nine innings, the second was the longest game played in MLB history at the time. It went 23 innings and lasted seven hours and 23 minutes. Roy McMillan and Ed Kranepool also turned a rare 6-6-3 triple play in the 14th inning for the second triple play in franchise history.

1991: The Mets traded Tim Teufel to the San Diego Padres for Garry Templeton.

Birthdays: Gerson Bautista turns 24, Joe Orsulak turns 57 and Dwight Bernard turns 67.