The New York Mets (55-49, first place in the National League’s eastern division) begin a seven-game road trip on Monday with four in Miami against manager Don Mattingly‘s Marlins (44-61, fifth place in the National League’s eastern division). The Mets will also play three games in Philadelphia against the Phillies on this trip.

New York is coming off a weekend of mixed results. They acquired two-time All-Star Javier Baez, along with pitcher Trevor Williams, from the Cubs at the trade deadline on Friday, and Baez paid immediate dividends by hitting a two-run homer in a spirited Mets win on Saturday night. However, they lost two of three games to the Cincinnati Reds over the weekend and failed to capitalize on both the Phillies’ and Braves’ weekend series losses.

The Mets received disturbing news on ace Jacob deGrom, who is being shut down from throwing for two weeks, making a September return the best-case scenario. Further, both Brandon Nimmo and Luis Guillorme are now dealing with hamstring injuries. Guillorme is on the injured list, and Nimmo, who appeared as a pinch-hitter on Sunday, seems to be day-to-day. Finally, on Sunday, the Mets failed to sign first-round draft pick Kumar Rocker by the signing deadline.

Now the Mets will hit the road, thin in the starting rotation and with a bullpen that has put in a significant amount of work recently, to try to defend their first-place position in the standings. New York has bent significantly, but not broken, so far this season at least in part due to the mediocrity of their division. On offense, the Mets have been less than impressive, averaging just 2.73 runs per game on their recently completed 11-game homestand, on which they went 5-6.

The Mets and Marlins, who were swept in a weekend series in Miami by the Yankees, will play three night games and wrap the series up with a day game on Thursday. The Marlins have a retractable roof, so the weather will not be an issue.

Let’s take a look at the expected pitching matchups for the series.

Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Monday, August 2: RHP Tylor Megill (1-0) NYM vs. LHP Jesus Luzardo (2-4) MIA 7:10 pm

Megill has been a revelation for the Mets, joining the rotation on June 23 and making seven starts thus far. He has pitched to a 2.04 ERA, and a 1.10 WHIP. The Long Beach, CA native has struck out 39, walked 11, and allowed 28 hits. He earned his first major league win on July 23 against the Blue Jays, in a game that he tossed six innings of no-run, two-hit baseball. The Mets will look to Megill to go as deep into this game as possible, coming off a weekend that saw Carlos Carrasco pitch just four innings on Friday night and Rich Hill follow with five innings on Saturday night.

Luzardo was acquired by the Marlins from the Athletics on July 28 for outfielder Starling Marte. He is the projected starter for this game, and it would be his first appearance in a Miami uniform. He has a 6.87 ERA on the season to go with a 1.63 WHIP. The native of Lima, Peru is in his third MLB season (all with Oakland) and has a career record 5-6 with a 4.79 ERA and a 1.33 WHIP. Luzardo has worked as both a starter and reliever in his career, making roughly half of his career appearances in each capacity.

The game can be seen locally on SNY and heard locally on WCBS radio 880 am.

Tuesday, August 3: RHP Taijuan Walker (7-5) NYM vs. Undecided MIA 7:10 pm

Walker has been in a pitching slump. It could be fatigue from the workload of 2021, as he pitched a total of 67 1/3 innings total from 2018-20 and has already thrown 99 1/3 innings so far this season. Walker represented the club at the All-Star Game, but since his return from the break, he has allowed 16 earned runs over 9 1/3 innings pitched. Walker says he feels fine physically and has been missing his location. Regardless of the reason, with the absence of deGrom, the Mets need their other starters to step up. Walker has not answered that call since the All-Star break.

The Marlins have not named a starter for the game.

The game can be seen locally on SNY and heard locally on WCBS radio 880 am.

Wednesday, August 4: RHP Carlos Carrasco (0-0) NYM vs. RHP Zach Thompson (2-4) MIA 7:10 pm

Carrasco made his Mets debut on Friday against the Reds after injuring his hamstring in spring training and working back from the injury. The native of Venezuela was very good in his outing, pitching four innings and allowing one earned run on three hits. Carrasco is an 11-year veteran with a career record of 88-73. He has a career ERA of 3.76 and a career WHIP of 1.32. The Mets will continue to be cautious with Carrasco’s innings, though they would like to see him go a little deeper in this game if possible.

Thompson is in his rookie season. He has made eight starts and has an ERA of 2.33 and a WHIP of 1.09. The Texas native has struck out 41 batters over 38 2/3 innings pitched. He has allowed 28 hits and walked 14 batters.

The game can be seen locally on SNY and heard locally on WCBS radio 880 am.

Thursday, August 5: LHP Rich Hill (6-4) NYM vs. LHP Trevor Rogers (7-6) MIA 12:10 pm

Hill has made two starts for the Mets since being acquired from the Rays. He has thrown 10 innings total for New York (five in each start) and has let up seven earned runs. The 41-year-old from Massachusetts has a career record of 73-48 and a career ERA of 3.82 to go with a career WHIP of 1.22. The crafty lefty relies on a curveball on which he varies speeds to get his outs, and will try to mix in a fastball that generally sits in the upper 80s. The Mets will hope Hill’s pitching savvy against the young Miami lineup will allow him to give the Mets more than five innings in this start.

Rogers has been very good for Miami. He has an ERA of 2.45 and a 1.13 WHIP this season. The native of New Mexico has pitched 110 innings in 2021, striking out 129 hitters while allowing 84 hits and 40 walks. This will be a tough matchup for the Mets. Rogers beat the Mets on April 10 in a game started by deGrom. In that game, Rogers pitched six shutout innings.

The game can be seen locally on SNY and heard locally on WCBS radio 880 am.

Miscellaneous Notes:

In addition to Marte, the Marlins traded OF Adam Duvall and P Yimi Garcia in the days leading up to the trading deadline.

Miami’s OPS leaders are Jesus Aguilar (.792), Jazz Chisholm (.744), and Miguel Rojas (.727).

Garrett Cooper, Jon Berti, Pablo Lopez, and Cody Poteet are currently on the injured list.

The Marlins are 20th in MLB in team BA (.234), 28th in home runs (102), and 28th in OPS (.674).

The Marlins’ staff ERA is 3.53, (5th), their starters’ ERA is 3.60 (7th) and the bullpen ERA is 3.45 (4th).

Mets OPS leaders are Pete Alonso (.831), Jeff McNeil (.756), Jonathan Villar (.731), Dominic Smith (.711).

The Mets are 19th in team BA (.236), 25th in home runs (113), and 21st in OPS (.699).

The Mets’ staff ERA is 3.64 (8th), their starters’ ERA is 3.37 (4th), and their bullpen ERA is 4.00 (12th).

In July, Megill is 1-0 with a 1.04 ERA and has held opponents to a .208 BA.

Against the Marlins since 2019, Michael Conforto has hit .372.

The Mets play 41% (24 games) of their remaining games against the Marlins and Nationals, both of whom recently traded star players at the deadline and are not considered in contention this season. The Mets will need to take advantage of this part of their schedule, and play well against these so-called “second-division” teams. Much has been made about the Mets playing 13 games against the Dodgers and Giants in August, making the games against Miami and Washington even more important.

After this series, the Mets will play three important games in Philadelphia over the weekend. The Mets’ lineup, which we keep waiting to see click, will need to start firing on all cylinders as the dog days of August are upon us. In addition, the Mets’ starters, who have been the strength of the team, will need to put up consistently good and deep starts to help the bullpen remain as fresh as possible going down the stretch.