First pitch: Sunday, 8:00 p.m. ET
Line: N/A, Total: N/A

The Mets will be looking to pick up a big Sunday night victory over the Nationals.

While the Mets are not off to a horrible start on record alone, this first month of the season was extremely important for them. New York had a calendar that was loaded with division matchups, so the team could have really distanced itself in the NL East standings with a strong opening to the year. That was not the case, but this team is far from out of it. They’ll hope to take down the Nationals in this game, but that’s not going to be easy for New York. The starters in this primetime matchup are going to be RHP Max Scherzer (2-1, 1.37 ERA, 24 K) for the Nationals and RHP Zack Wheeler (1-1, 5.52 ERA, 15 K) for the Mets. Scherzer is by far the better of the two, as he is a two-time Cy Young Award winner and a four-time All-Star. Wheeler, meanwhile, is a former top prospect that has struggled to stay healthy in his career. He has some remarkable stuff, but putting it all together has been an issue thus far.

The Nationals are playing some good baseball right now and they should be able to get to Zack Wheeler on Sunday. Wheeler throws some pretty ridiculous pitches, but he is also extremely hittable. He misses on a ton of his fastballs and that means that Washington could put up a bunch of runs in this one. Look for guys like OF Bryce Harper, 2B Daniel Murphy and OF Adam Eaton to all produce at the plate in this one. Harper should especially be dangerous up there, as he has been absolutely incredible this season. As for the pitching, Scherzer should be just fine on the mound in this one. Last season, the righty was 2-1 with a 0.87 ERA against the Mets. He struck out a ridiculous 29 batters in those three games, and it’s likely that he will have no trouble making them look bad again on Sunday.

The Mets can really use a win on Sunday night and that means that Zack Wheeler is going to need to pitch well for his team. Wheeler has not walked a lot of batters this season, but he does throw a ton of pitches. It took him 99 pitches to get through 5.0 innings of work in his most recent trip to the mound, and it’s important that he finds a way to make quicker work of his opponents moving forward. He also needs to make sure he doesn’t hang any fastballs on Sunday, as the Nationals will make sure they make him pay. Offensively, OF Curtis Granderson is one guy that could provide a spark for New York. In his career against Scherzer, Granderson is 9-for-27 with three doubles, two homers and four RBI. Nobody else on this team has been too great against the righty, so it’s important he steps it up. OF Jay Bruce can also do some damage, as he is 3-for-7 with a homer against Scherzer.