New York Mets (70-82, fourth in NL East) vs. Washington Nationals (77-75, third in NL East)

Washington; Thursday, 7:05 p.m. Eastern

PROBABLE PITCHERS: Mets: Jason Vargas (6-9, 6.47 ERA, 1.54 WHIP, 70 strikeouts) Nationals: Max Scherzer (17-7, 2.53 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 277 strikeouts)

BOTTOM LINE: Washington and New York start the four-game series. The Nationals have gone 21-10 in games started by Scherzer. Washington holds a team on-base percentage of .332 for the year, Bryce Harper paces the lineup with a .394 OBP. The Mets have gone 33-33 against the rest of their division. New York pitchers are averaging 8.9 strikeouts per nine innings, Daniel Zamora paces the staff with a mark of 18.0. Adam Eaton helped the Nationals earn a 15-0 win when these two teams last met on Aug. 26. He went 4-for-6 with two RBIs.

TOP PERFORMERS: Michael Conforto has 72 runs and 75 RBIs for the Mets this year. Amed Rosario has 12 hits and is batting .300 over his past 10 games for New York. Anthony Rendon has 21 home runs and 79 RBIs in 126 games for the Nationals. Juan Soto has 12 hits and is batting .286 over his past 10 games for Washington.

LAST 10 GAMES: Mets: 5-5, .227 batting average, 3.24 ERA, outscored opponents by 18 runs. Nationals: 7-3, .243 batting average, 4.10 ERA, outscored opponents by nine runs.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by HERO Sports, and data from Sportradar.