Mets Morning News: Can we have Matt Harvey pitch every game?

Meet the Mets

A pair of comebacks went for naught in Saturday's 7-6 defeat to the Nationals. The bullpen gave up runs immediately after the Mets took a 5-3 lead, and then after they tied the game at 6 apiece. Just for good measure, Bryce Harper is incredible at baseball. For more, check out the recaps below.

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The Mets and Nats play the rubber game of their series this afternoon, as Dillon Gee will face off against Jordan Zimmermann. Game time is at 1:10 PM on WPIX.

Earlier this morning, the Mets announced that they'd designated Aaron Laffey for assignment. Laffey was not particularly effective in any of his 4 appearances, and the 3-run home run he allowed to Adam LaRoche on Saturday turned that game around. Rob Carson is up from Las Vegas and he'll take Laffey's roster spot for now. In terms of the 5th starter's job, it sounds like the Mets are banking on Shaun Marcum for Saturday's start.

It sounds like Ruben Tejada dodged a bullet on Friday when his ankle got rolled over. Tejada should be fine to play today but Terry Collins says he easily could've broken his ankle on something like that.

Jeremy Hefner's been incredibly home run prone, allowing 7 home runs through his first 14 innings. For measure, Hefner allowed 9 home runs all of last season (93.2 innings).

Zack Wheeler's walk issues at Triple A do not sit well with Terry Collins.

In Las Vegas, the hope is that the Mets' Triple A affiliate will be able to get a brand new stadium in a safer location sometime in the near future. Of course, whether they're still affiliated with the Mets at that point remains to be seen, as the two sides are only signed up through 2014.

Yesterday At AA

Daniel Convery provides yesterday's Daily Farm Report.

Brock Mahan looks back at April 20th in Mets history.

Around the NL East

The Phillies lost to the Cardinals 5-0, as obviously Cliff Lee just does not know how to win.

It looks like the Braves are struggling for the first time, as they fell to the Pirates 3-1.

Brandon Phillips hit a walk-off sacrifice fly, as the Miami Marlins lost to the Reds 3-2 in extra innings.

The Nats DL'd Ryan Zimmerman with a sore hamstring and called up top prospect Anthony Rendon, who'll start at third today.

Around the Majors

Desmond Jennings turned an unassisted double play. That is Rays' Center Fielder Desmond Jennings turned an unassisted double play.

Neil Diamond showed up at Fenway Park to sing Sweet Caroline unannounced yesterday. It essentially ended up being Diamond singing karaoke with himself but still pretty cool. Also from that game, the pregame ceremonies at Fenway were fantastic.

Dodgers' righty Chad Billingsley is out with more elbow soreness. Suddenly, the Dodgers seem to need a starting pitcher after they looked like they had too much of it.

Ryan Madson hasn't pitched since 2011, two years and two teams ago, and after suffering another setback, it sounds like he won't be pitching soon.