First pitch: Friday, 7:10 p.m. ET
Line: Los Angeles -105, New York -105, Total: 7.5

The Dodgers will be looking to take a 2-0 series lead on the Mets on Friday night.

The Dodgers will be heading into Friday’s contest having won four of their past six games and six of their past 10. They’ll look to continue their hot stretch with a win over a Mets team that has scored three or fewer runs in six of their past seven games. New York has won just two of those seven and will need to find a way to start hitting the ball or they will have no chance of making it to the postseason. These teams have split wins against one another in four meetings this year, but the Dodgers are 5-2 when hosting the Mets over the past three seasons. The pitching matchup in this one will be between LHP Ian Thomas (0-1, 5.23 ERA, 8 Ks) for the Dodgers and LHP Jon Niese (5-8, 3.36 ERA, 73 Ks) for the Mets. It is Thomas’ first career start and he has pitched just 10.3 innings on the year. The Mets are a lousy 7-17 against the money line in home games after a game where they stranded three or less runners on base over the past three seasons. They are, however, 32-15 against the money line when playing at home this season. Los Angeles will be relatively healthy coming into this game, but New York could be without RF Michael Cuddyer (Knee) and is already without C Travis d’Arnaud (Elbow) and 3B David Wright (Back).

The Dodgers are going to try to stay hot with a win in New York on Friday and it’ll be up to Ian Thomas to give them some solid innings in this game. This will be Thomas’ first career start and he was 4-1 with a 4.14 ERA in the minors this season before being called up and throwing a few bullpen innings. If he can give the Dodgers something close to a quality start then he will have done his job well. With Thomas being inexperienced, Los Angeles will need to get some run support in this game. That will all begin with 1B Adrian Gonzalez (.297, 21 HRs, 60 RBIs), who is 0-for-9 against Niese in his career. It will be very difficult for his team to win if he can not figure out New York’s starter on Friday. RF Yasiel Puig (.259, 5 HRs, 20 RBIs) has also struggled against Niese, going 0-for-6 with two strikeouts against him. He does, however, come into this game with six RBIs in his past six games. He’ll look to keep himself going in this one. One guy who has done well against Niese in his career is RF Andre Ethier (.281, 10 HRs, 33 RBIs). Ethier is 4-for-10 with two RBIs in his career against the Mets starter and will need to provide a solid presence at the plate on Friday.

The Mets have been struggling lately and they will need to start hitting the ball better in order to support their elite starting rotation. One guy who has taken it upon himself to get on-base is RF Curtis Granderson (.251, 14 HRs, 31 RBIs). Granderson has just two RBIs over the past six games but has also gotten a hit in eight straight contests. He’ll need to start doing so when there are runners on the bags though. 1B Lucas Duda (.237, 12 HRs, 38 RBIs) has not homered in eight games now and New York needs him to start hitting for power. He was one of the bright spots offensively for this team early in the year but has really slowed down as of late. CF Juan Lagares (.254, 3 HRs, 25 RBIs) has two multi-hit games in the past five contests and three in the past 10. He could provide a spark for the Mets in this one. Fortunately for New York, the team is loaded with arms and Niese has been one of them. The lefty has been on a tear of late, allowing three or less earned runs in eight straight games. His most recent start against the Cardinals might have been his best of the season, going 7.2 innings and allowing no earned runs on just five hits. The Mets will need another performance like that on Friday.