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Diamondbacks-Mets Preview

Jul 12, 2015 - 1:47 AM The New York Mets were hoping to enter the All-Star break on the heels of another dazzling performance by rookie sensation Steven Matz but an injury altered those plans.

Jonathon Niese will instead get the nod as the Mets go for a four-game winning streak Sunday against the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks.

New York (46-42) has one of the best pitching staffs in baseball with a 3.23 ERA that's picked up the slack for an offense batting a major league-low .232.

All-Star Jacob deGrom and fellow starters Noah Syndergaard and Matt Harvey have combined for a 1.17 ERA over the last three games.

Matz, who yielded two runs and struck out 14 over 13 2-3 innings to win his first two starts, was supposed to get the call Sunday, but a partial tear of his left lat muscle has him out at least four weeks.

While the injury has New York pondering a return to a five-man rotation from six, Niese (4-8, 3.58 ERA) will try to lead it to a sixth win in seven tries.

The left-hander allowed three hits in eight innings of Monday's 3-0 win at San Francisco after going 0-6 with a 5.26 ERA over his nine prior outings.

"It's been a while. That felt good," said Niese, whose losing streak included giving up three runs in six innings of a 7-2 defeat at Arizona on June 5.

In six career starts versus the Diamondbacks (42-44), Niese is 2-3 with a 6.29 ERA - his highest against any NL team.

The Mets, though, have won three straight meetings by scoring 14 runs and hitting nine homers. Harvey's two-run blast was one of their three homers Saturday while he also allowed two runs with nine strikeouts in seven innings of a 4-2 win.

Lucas Duda has four RBIs while homering on both of his hits through the first two games of this series after batting .160 with two homers and 11 RBIs over his previous 36 contests.

The Diamondbacks have 11 hits and four runs in two games after batting .310 while averaging 5.7 runs during a 6-3 stretch.

All-Star Paul Goldschmidt is 0 for 7 in this series, giving him a .163 average in 49 at-bats in 12 games at Citi Field.

Arizona is turning to Rubby De La Rosa (6-4, 4.89), who is looking to bounce back from his latest performance after going 2-0 with a 1.30 ERA over his previous four starts.

The right-hander was roughed up for four runs in the opening inning before giving up two more and getting pulled with no outs in the sixth of a 6-4 loss to Colorado on Sunday.

"He settled down and had four beautiful innings, as good as you can pitch," manager Chip Hale told MLB's official website. "Rubby had a tough go, that's definitely not a step forward."

De La Rosa yielded one run in 15 innings while winning his only decision in his last two road starts. He's facing the Mets for the second time, losing at home with the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 4, 2011.

New York closer Jeurys Familia has converted saves in five straight appearances - including both games of this series - and his 26 are a franchise record before the break.