Milwaukee @ New York preview

Last Meeting ( Aug 19, 2011 ) Milwaukee 6, NY Mets 1

THE STORY: The Milwaukee Brewers are looking at padding their lead in the National League Central while waiting for their team to return to full health for the stretch run. The New York Mets are just hoping to finish the season with a .500 record and a little momentum. After dropping the series opener on Friday night, the Mets will try to turn things around when they send Chris Capuano to the mound against the Brewers at Citi Field on Saturday afternoon.

TV: 4:10 p.m. ET, FOX

PITCHING MATCHUP: Mets LH Chris Capuano (9-11, 4.58 ERA) vs. Brewers LH Randy Wolf (10-8, 3.30 ERA).

Capuano has struggled recently, allowing four earned runs or more in five of his last six starts. The veteran lefthander took the loss at Arizona last Sunday, yielding four runs on nine hits in six innings. A former Brewer, Capuano faced Milwaukee back on June 7 and put together one of his better starts of the season, surrendering one run in six innings to pick up the win.

Wolf is riding a four-start winning streak during which he has allowed one or no runs three times. The California native, who will celebrate his 35th birthday on Monday, is coming off eight scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers last Monday. Wolf yielded just one run in 6 2/3 innings against New York on June 8 but did not factor in the decision. He is 12-5 with a 3.21 ERA in 33 career starts against the Mets.

ABOUT THE METS (60-64): After claiming its first series win of August at San Diego earlier this week, New York returned home on Friday to the news that a trial date had been set for Madoff trustee vs. New York Mets. The March 5 trial will allow a jury to hear a $1 billion claim against the Mets owners. While that may put a dent in future free agent spending, in the present the Mets followed up their encouraging series against the Padres with a poor effort on Friday. After waiting out a two-hour, 46-minute rain delay to get the game started, a first-inning error by David Wright led to an early unearned run and sent New York on its way to a seventh loss in the last nine games.

ABOUT THE BREWERS (74-52): It wasn’t long ago that Milwaukee was looking in the rearview mirror constantly at the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds. With the Cardinals now 7 ½ games back in the Central and the Pirates and Reds out of contention, the Brewers have little to worry about other than keeping their torrid pace going. Winners of 20 of its last 23 games, Milwaukee is waiting on the return of starter Chris Narveson and second baseman Rickie Weeks to settle in for the stretch run. Prince Fielder was the star of Friday’s win, recording two hits, two RBIs, two runs scored and briefly causing the benches to clear when he shared some words with Mets reliever Tim Byrdak in the eighth. The free agent-to-be is up to 92 RBIs on the season.

FINAL PITCH: Mets All-Star Jose Reyes ran for 1 ½ hours on Friday to test his strained left hamstring. “I’ve been running the past couple of days, so I’m feeling good,” Reyes told the Mets website. “Not 100 percent, but it’s getting there.” One of the most coveted free agents set to hit the market this winter, Reyes has been taking batting practice but says he needs to run the bases before determining when to make his return.