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Mets, Reds square off in finale of two-game set

May 17, 2012 - 2:59 PM (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.