The Mets begin what looks like a promising stretch in their schedule this afternoon when Pedro Martinez takes on the lowly Pirates at Shea Stadium in a makeup game. Pedro hasn’t won in his past three starts, even though he gave up just two earned runs in 6 1/3 innings against the Padres last week in his most recent outing.

As for the lineup, Jerry Manuel is sitting hot-hitting rookie Daniel Murphy with a left-hander on the mound for Pittsburgh. Carlos Beltran also appears to have regained the cleanup role on a regular basis, and Manuels is obviously getting a lot more comfortable with Robinson Cancel over Brian Schneider behind the plate while Ramon Castro nurses a sprained ankle.

Here is the entire order for the 62-55 Mets, who are two games behind the Phillies in second place in the NL East:

Jose Reyes SS

Nick Evans LF

David Wright 3B

Carlos Beltran CF

Carlos Delgado 1B

Fernando Tatis RF

Damion Easley 2B

Robinson Cancel C

Pedro Martinez RHP (3-3, 5.79)

The Pirates, who are buried in the NL Central standings at 53-64, will go with this look:

Nate McLouth CF

Luis Rivas SS

Doug Mientkiewicz 1B

Ryan Doumit C

Andy LaRoche 3B

Jose Bautista LF

Steve Pearce RF

Chris Gomez 2B

Zach Duke LHP (4-10, 5.13)