Cincinnati Reds (19-17) at New York Mets (20-17), 1:10 p.m. (ET)

(Sports Network) – Knuckleballer R.A. Dickey can make it nearly a month
without a loss today when the New York Mets close out a brief two-game series
with the visiting Cincinnati Reds at Citi Field.

The 18th overall pick by the Texas Rangers in 1996, Dickey pitched for three
teams in parts of seven seasons before the Mets signed him as a free agent
prior to the 2010 campaign.

He emerged with a career-best 11 wins with New York that season and has
subsequently won 13 times in 40 appearances, including a successful start to
2012 in which he’s won five of six decisions across seven starts.

The 37-year-old Nashville native last lost on April 18 at Atlanta and is 3-0
in four starts since while allowing 19 hits and seven runs in 27 innings,
walking eight batters and striking out 17.

Dickey won his lone career start against the Reds after pitching 6 2/3
innings, allowing two runs on eight hits and striking out seven.

Cincinnati counters with right-hander Mat Latos, who makes his eighth start of
his first season with the Reds after an offseason trade that sent former ace
Edinson Volquez to San Diego.

Latos, a 24-year-old Virginian, was 0-2 with an 8.22 earned run average
through his initial three starts with his new team, but is 2-0 in four starts
since while trimming his ERA to a more respectable 4.54 across 39 2/3 innings.

He defeated Pittsburgh with six innings of scoreless, two-hit ball and 11
strikeouts on May 6, then got a tough-luck no-decision six days later after
giving up just a run on three hits in the Reds’ 2-1 loss to Washington.

Cincinnati is 3-4 in games he’s pitched and Latos has won two of three career
starts against the Mets.

On Wednesday, Todd Frazier homered twice, a solo shot and a two-run blast that
capped a four-run eighth inning, as the Reds came back to down the Mets, 6-3.

Cincinnati received six innings, as well as two hits and a run scored, from
starter Mike Leake, while Jose Arredondo (3-1) pitched a perfect seventh for
the win and Sean Marshall tossed a scoreless ninth to pick up his seventh save
for the Reds, who have won three of four.

Jon Rauch (3-2) was charged with three runs in just a third of an inning to
suffer the setback, as the Mets lost their third in four tries.

The Mets won five of seven versus the Reds last season.