Baseball Opening Day Preview: New York Mets open against Washington Nationals

New York Mets (77-85, fourth in the NL East in 2018) vs. Washington Nationals (82-80, second in the NL East in 2018); Nationals Park, Washington; Thursday, 1 p.m. EDT.

PITCHING PROBABLES: Mets: Jacob deGrom (0-0, 0.00 ERA) Nationals: Max Scherzer (0-0, 0.00 ERA)

BOTTOM LINE: New York visits Washington for opening day.

The Nationals went 41-35 in division games in 2018. Washington pitchers struck out 8.7 hitters per game last year with a staff ERA of 4.04.

The Mets finished 40-36 against NL East Division opponents in 2018. New York hit .234 as a team last year and hit 170 total home runs. The Mets won the season series 11-8 in 2018.

Nationals Injuries: None listed.

Mets Injuries: Yoenis Cespedes: day-to-day (heels), Travis d'Arnaud: day-to-day (elbow).

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by HERO Sports, and data from Sportradar.