Game 103 lineups: Nats at Mets

NEW YORK – The Nationals just completed their best homestand of the season. They’ve won nine of their last 14 overall. Now they’ll see if they can keep it up on the road against a Mets team that desperately needs to turn things on, lest they actually become sellers at next week’s trade deadline.

Yeah, the situation is that dire here in Flushing, where the most expensive team in baseball has the eighth-worst record in baseball, is 17 1/2 games out of first place and 7 1/2 games out of the wild card race, with five teams to chase in front of it. If we’re being realistic, the Mets probably need to sweep this four-game series to make a compelling case for owner Steve Cohen to buy before Tuesday’s deadline.

The Nats will try to prevent that with their All-Star starter on the mound for the series opener tonight. Josiah Gray is coming off an excellent outing against the Giants, when he allowed one run and four hits over seven innings. He’s already pitched very well here at Citi Field this year, shutting out the Mets over six innings April 25.

Kodai Senga starts for New York. The 30-year-old rookie from Japan hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs in a month, lowering his ERA to 3.27 in the process. He faced the Nationals in that same late-April series, allowing two runs in five innings but taking the loss.

WASHINGTON NATIONALS at NEW YORK METS
Where: Citi Field
Gametime: 7:10 p.m. EDT
TV: MASN, MLB.tv
Radio: 106.7 FM, MLB.com
Weather: Chance of storms, 81 degrees, wind 6 mph out to left field

NATIONALS
SS CJ Abrams
RF Lane Thomas
3B Jeimer Candelario
DH Joey Meneses
C Keibert Ruiz
1B Dominic Smith
LF Corey Dickerson
2B Luis García
CF Alex Call

RHP Josiah Gray

METS
CF Brandon Nimmo
SS Francisco Lindor
2B Jeff McNeil
1B Pete Alonso
DH Daniel Vogelbach
RF DJ Stewart
LF Mark Canha
3B Brett Baty
C Omar Narvaez

RHP Kodai Senga