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Mets look to avoid sweep by lowly Mariners

Jun 25, 2008 - 1:03 PM Seattle (28-49) at Ny Mets (37-39) 7:10 pm. EDT

FLUSHING, New York (Ticker) -- John Maine takes the hill as the New York Mets look to avoid an embarrassing sweep at the hands of the league-worst Seattle Mariners on Wednesday.

R.A. Dickey threw seven scoreless innings and Kenji Johjima and Raul Ibanez each homered as the Mariners rolled to an 11-0 victory on Tuesday. Seattle, which improved to 3-4 under interim manager Jim Riggleman and is seeking its first series sweep of the season, rapped out a season-high 15 hits against the struggling Oliver Perez.

Maine (7-5, 3.78 ERA) should have a better chance at slowing the Mariners. The righthander is seeking a second straight win after limiting Colorado to two runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings of a 7-2 win on Friday despite a blister on his middle finger.

New York, which is 3-4 under its interim manager Jerry Manuel, will likely get David Wright back in the lineup after he was given his first day off all season. The 25-year-old had been the only player in baseball to play every inning of every game.

Wright and the Mets will try to bring some momentum into the upcoming Subway Series with the cross-town New York Yankees by beating Miguel Batista, who is starting in place of the sidelined Erik Bedard (back spasms).

Batista (3-9, 6.26) has been working in relief since June 7. With closer J.J. Putz on the disabled list, Batista was forced into duty against Atlanta and blew the save in a 5-4 loss on Saturday.