(Sports Network) - The New York Mets are starting to play cohesive baseball again and will try for their fourth straight victory tonight in the second test of a four-game series versus the Los Angeles Dodgers at Shea Stadium.

New York won two of three games versus the Florida Marlins to open a seven- game homestand before posting an 8-4 triumph over the Dodgers in Thursday's series opener. David Wright brutalized LA pitching with a pair of two-run homers and Luis Castillo finished with three hits and an RBI to lead the way. Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado had two hits apiece in a winning effort.

Claudio Vargas earned the victory despite allowing four runs on five hits through 5 2/3 frames. The bullpen allowed just two hits and no walks in 3 1/3 innings of scoreless work to preserve New York's third straight win.

The Mets will send recently-struggling pitcher John Maine to the mound tonight, and he is 5-4 with a 3.41 ERA in 10 starts this season.

Maine has lost back-to-back outings after a personal four-game winning streak. He started the current breakdown on May 20 at Atlanta, allowing four runs and eight hits in four innings of a 6-1 loss. Five days later during a 4-1 defeat at Colorado, Maine was reached for four runs -- three earned -- on three hits through six frames.

His best outing of the season came at Los Angeles on May 7, when he tossed 8 1/3 innings of one-run ball to spearhead a 12-1 victory. Maine, a right- hander, is 1-3 with a 3.70 earned run average through four career starts against LA.

Los Angeles opened a seven-game road trip by getting swept in three games against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. It then dropped an 8-4 decision last night, as Brad Penny yielded six runs -- five earned -- on eight hits over four innings of work. Jeff Kent and Blake DeWitt each homered in a losing cause. Dodgers manager Joe Torre made his return to the Big Apple after spending 12 seasons as manager of the 26-time World Series champion New York Yankees.

Heralded pitcher Clayton Kershaw will make his second-career start tonight for the Dodgers, and he is coming off an impressive debut. Kershaw, the seventh overall pick in the 2006 draft out of Highland Park High School, was promoted from Double-A Jacksonville to take the fifth spot in the rotation for LA.

Kershaw surrendered a pair of runs and five hits in six frames of a 4-3 victory in 10 innings on May 25. He also struck out seven Cardinals and issued one walk. The Dallas native was 0-3 with a 2.28 ERA for Jacksonville and had 47 strikeouts in 43 1/3 innings of work before getting called up

The southpaw, who had 69 of his 102 pitches called strikes, will get his first taste of the Mets on Friday.

Los Angeles won two of three games against the Mets at Dodger Stadium from May 5-7. It has won three of the last five meetings in the series.