Friday's opener of a three-game series between the Reds and Mets was postponed due to rain.

Santana is 3-2 with a 2.91 ERA in seven starts this season, and is 2-0 over the past four trips to the mound. In his most recent performance on Sunday at Arizona, Santana did not factor in the outcome of a 5-2 win after giving up one run and six hits in six innings of work.

The talented lefty is 0-0 with a 6.14 ERA in two career appearances (one start) against Cincinnati.

Santana will be opposed in game one by Cincinnati right-hander Matt Belisle. Belisle lost for the second time in his three starts this season last Saturday against Atlanta, as the Braves managed two runs and eight hits off of him in 5 1/3 innings.

The 27-year-old right-hander, who is pitching to a 6.91 ERA this season, has yet to record a decision in three games against the Mets, but has pitched to a 3.86 earned run average in those outings.

Florida native Bronson Arroyo goes for the Reds in the nightcap and will try to shake off his worst start of 2008, in which he was raked for seven hits and seven runs while just recording four outs in a 14-7 loss to Atlanta on Sunday.

Previously, the Key West native had earned his first win of the season, allowing six hits and three runs in six innings while beating the St. Louis Cardinals, 4-3, on April 28.

Arroyo, who was 0-3 with two no-decisions before that win, is 2-2 in five career starts against the Mets.

He's allowed 35 hits and 17 earned runs in 35 2/3 innings, walking eight batters and striking out 22.

New York counters in the second game with Mike Pelfrey, who is winless in his last three starts. Pelfrey lost his second straight last Saturday in Arizona, as he allowed five runs and nine hits in five innings to fall to 2-2, while raising his ERA to 5.27.

Pelfrey is 1-0 in his career against the Reds with a 3.68 ERA in two games (one start).

Cincinnati enters tonight's opener on the heels of an impressive offensive showing. The Reds belted seven home runs in a 9-0 win on Wednesday over the Chicago Cubs at Great American Ball Park.

Joey Votto matched a team record with three of the blasts, while Adam Dunn, Paul Bako, Jerry Hairston and Brandon Phillips added homers for the Reds, who also received seven shutout innings from Edinson Volquez to win for just the second time in their last eight games.

The seven homers were two shy of the club's single-game record of nine, set on September 4, 1999 at Philadelphia.

The New York Mets also enter tonight's fray following an impressive offensive showing of their own.

On Wednesday at Dodger Stadium, Raul Casanova finished 2-for-4 with two RBI and a pair of runs scored as New York crushed Los Angeles, 12-1, in the finale of a three-game set.

Luis Castillo and David Wright also drove in a pair of runs while Ryan Church homered and scored three times for the Mets, who salvaged a game in the series and finished one run off their season-high set April 2 in a 13-0 win over Florida.

The Mets won five of their seven meetings with the Reds last season and have won eight of their last 11 in the series.