Young right-hander Jose Fernandez faces the New York Mets for the fourth time in his 12th big-league start on Friday night, when the Miami Marlins visit them to open a three-game series at Citi Field.
A 20-year-old from Cuba who was the Marlins' first-round pick in the 2011 draft, Fernandez debuted on April 7 with five innings of one-run ball in a 4-3 New York win.
He got a second no-decision against the Mets on April 29, when he allowed two runs on three hits in four innings of a game the Marlins won, 4-3.
He earned a first victory over New York in the most recent meeting on June 1 after tossing seven scoreless innings of three-hit ball in an 8-1 victory.
Fernandez, in 43 1/3 innings against other opposition, is 2-3 and has allowed 38 hits and 22 runs.
He's opposed by 24-year-old New York phenom Matt Harvey, who remains unbeaten through 12 starts.
The Connecticut native won each of his initial four starts of the season and had a stingy 0.93 earned run average through his first 29 innings.
He's won once and picked up seven no-decisions in eight starts since, during which the Mets have gone 4-4 while Harvey's ERA has swelled somewhat to 2.17.
Harvey met the Marlins on June 2 and was nicked for 10 hits and four runs in a game Miami won, 11-6.
He allowed a run in 5 1/3 innings of a no-decision against Fernandez in Miami on April 29, a game the Marlins also won, 4-3.
On Thursday in Washington, the game between the Mets and the host Nationals was postponed due to inclement weather.
On Wednesday, Marlon Byrd belted a pair of homers and the Mets snapped a four-game losing streak with a 10-1 win.
Byrd and Anthony Recker both drove in three runs, while David Wright had a two-run homer and Daniel Murphy had an RBI double for the Mets, who recorded 15 hits.
New York starter Dillon Gee (4-6) had seven strikeouts and allowed one run on nine hits and a walk over seven frames. He also contributed offensively by driving in one run.
On Wednesday in Philadelphia, Cole Hamels hurled seven innings of one- run ball to lead the Phillies to a 6-1 win over the Marlins to complete a three- game sweep at Citizens Bank Park.
Derek Dietrich accounted for the Marlins' lone run with a homer.
A.J. Ramos (0-2) absorbed the loss after getting knocked around during a five- run seventh for Philadelphia.
"(Starter Jacob Turner) was aggressive in the strike zone, I thought he had solid movement," Marlins manager Mike Redmond said. "He pounded the strike zone and held a good lineup in check. It was a good game for six innings."
The Marlins have won six of the initial nine games with the Mets in 2013, including a sweep of a three-game series in Miami between May 31 and June 2.
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